Dwelling on the plight of farmers, the chief minister stated that the Punjab farmer was under a Rs 5,700 crore debt, for which he has to pay Rs 1,102 crore as annual interest.

He asked the farmers to look at alternative professions like dairy farming on a large scale for survival as the production capacity of the land had already been exhausted. Badal further said that condition of the Punjab farmer, "who was the backbone of the country" was fast deteriorating.

Badal also announced that the government had reduced the penal rent being charged from farmers in case of default to cooperative institutions including banks, from 3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. The government was contemplating to reduce it further to one per cent, he added.

He expressed concern over the plight of the farmers and asked them to set up training centres to equip their family members in vocational courses as "these would help the farmers to sustain their families in a much better way". He promised that funds for this would be taken care of by the government.

Discussing the farmers' debt, he said, "the compensation for the land would no longer be decided by the deputy commissioner; it would be now paid at par with the market value of land, which will be decided together by the DC, the local MLA and the sarpanch, in the presence of the land owner in the village panchayat." Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, president of BKU, asked the state government to write off the Rs 20,000 crore loan. Manjit Singh Kadian, general secretary of the union, stressed the need for one-third reservation of seats for women in the Parliament and said their reservation of legacy rights pertaining to property be secured in house of her in-laws.