Table of Contents
WHAT IS KURKI?
- Kurki is attachment of farmers’ land by banks or sahukars/traders (commission agents and private money lenders) in the event of non-payment of loan or debt.
- It is an age-old practice that farmers take debt from different agencies, including banks & moneylenders. Also attach their land as collateral.
WHAT HAPPEN IF FARMER FAIL TO PAY THE LOAN?
- In the event of non-repayment of the loan amount, the land pledged by the farmer gets registered in the name of Bank or moneylender through court order.
- In 2017, the total agricultural debt in Punjab was pegged at Rs 85,000 crore.
- Out of which total loan to farmers including marginal and small growers was Rs 72,700 crore.
WHEN WAS KURKI BANNED?
- During 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress party gave the slogan of “karza kurki khatam, fasal di poori rakam.”
- Accordingly, after forming the government it declared the abolition of kurki by issuing a notification on July 21, 2017.
- The government scrapped Section 67-A of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, which provides basis for the arrest of the loan defaulter.
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM NOW?
- The main drawback of this notification was that it covered only cooperative banks and does not cover the commercial banks and private money lenders.
- Loans from cooperative banks form only 10-15%.
- They are, therefore, obtaining decrees from courts to attach the lands of defaulting farmers.
- Banks are also using dishonored post-dated cheques taken from farmers against their loans to initiate criminal cases against the defaulters.
EXAMPLE
- A farmer, Puran Singh, had borrowed Rs 3500 over a decade back from a money lender, which has now become Rs 7 lakh with interest.
- To recover the loan marginal farmer’s land faces the threat of auction.
WAY FORWARD
- There are numerous cases where farmers have repaid twice or thrice the amount taken on loan.
- Experts wants strict implementation of Sir Chhotu Ram formula.
- It bans the interest and repayment of loans to be more than twice the principal amount.
- This will help in ending majority of Kurki cases.
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