What is kurki, and why is it a big issue in Punjab?

Was kurki not banned in Punjab?

Both Akali Dal and Congress governments of the past have claimed to have banned kurki. Congress fought the 2017 Assembly polls on the slogan ‘karza kurki khatam, fasal di poori rakam’.

Soon after winning polls in 2017, the then Amarinder Singh government abolished Section 67-A of Punjab Cooperative Societies Act that enabled cooperatives to recover unpaid loans through auctioning of land mortgaged by farmers.

“However, Section 63-B, 63-C of the Act were not dropped to prevent attachment of land,” said Manjit Singh Dhaner, senior vice president of BKU (Dakaunda).

Former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal has also claimed that kurki was abolished by his government.

Dhaner, however, accuses governments of issuing vague orders on the matter.

This was the reason, he said, that farmers keep getting kurki orders.

Why has a total ban on the century-old kurki law not been achieved?

A plea filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2018 sought complete ban on kurki.

However, the Punjab government in its affidavit stated that there was no need to ban kurki as relief was being given to farmers in terms of loan waiver, compensation etc. Moreover, it stated that Section 60 of Civil Procedure Code, 1908 – under which kurki takes place — was over 110 years old and needed complete revision.

What is the ground reality?

Farmers point out that they are made to give post-dated cheques for loan, which are then used to get arrest orders issued in cheque bounce cases. They have also accused money lenders of using pronotes signed by them to get kurki orders. “Pro-notes” (promissory notes) are written documents taken from farmers, and signed by them at the time of giving the loan.

In April 2022, over 2,000 arrest warrants were issued against farmers for non-payment of loans to cooperative societies and Punjab agriculture development banks.

Meanwhile, over Rs 3,200 crores is outstanding against farmers’ names in cooperative societies and Punjab agriculture development banks and over 60% of farmers haven’t paid even a penny for the past three years, sources revealed.

©Indian Express