Chandigarh: The Punjab Mandi Board has not been able to repay the installment of the loan taken from four banks due to the obstruction in the rural development fund by the central government.

The Punjab Mandi Board has now become a defaulter due to non-payment of installments for the month of December. It has also been learnt that the Punjab Mandi Board has now knocked on the doors of the Punjab government and sought funds from the Finance Department for repayment of the loan instalment.

The mandi board had taken this loan on the income of rural development funds. Out of this loan amount, the then Captain Amarinder Singh government had used funds worth Rs 4,000 crore for the loan waiver scheme of farmers.

The remaining Rs 650 crore was spent on special repair of link roads. The total loan amount of Rs 4650 crore raised by the Punjab Mandi Board has become Rs 5500 crore along with interest.

At present, only three installments of this loan are left, for which Rs 1615 crore is required. In a year, two installments have to be paid and rs 545 crore per installment has to be paid.

The Mandi Board has not been able to wire the installment of Rs 545 crore for the month of December to these four banks, due to which the board has become a defaulter. The Mandi Board had sought time from the banks till February to pay the installment for the month of December, but despite this, the Mandi Board could not pay the installment.

On the other hand, the Punjab Mandi Board has taken a separate loan of Rs 4080 crore for the repair of link roads, its installment is being paid regularly. The Centre has withheld Rs 3,200 crore of rural development funds, which is also affecting the repair and construction of link roads.

A short while ago, the Central government decided to give only one per cent to Punjab instead of 2.5 per cent administrative expenditure on crop procurement expenses, which will reduce Punjab by Rs 577 crore annually.

Now, Punjab will have to bear the total loss of about Rs 3200 crore. The state will need to repair around 12,800 km of link roads by March 31 for which funds of Rs 1,992 crore are required. This is a big challenge for the Punjab government.

However, the AAP government had passed the ‘Punjab Rural Development Act (Amendment) Bill’ in a cabinet meeting on June 6, 2022 to do away with the central condition and it was made an Act by the Vidhan Sabha. However, the Centre did not release funds to Punjab.

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