New Delhi: The Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday approved waiver of farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh, fulfilling a major election promise made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to government data, 2.15 crore of the 2.30 crore farmers in UP are in the 'small and marginal' category. Most of these farmers were unable to repay loans worth Rs 62,000 crore after crop losses due to natural calamities.
Loans up to Rs 1 lakh would be waived and farmers would get Rs 10 per quintal more than the Minimum Support Price (MSP), party leaders told media after a three hour-long meeting.
The opposition, however, was not placated by Adityanath government's farm loan wavier.
The president of Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, reacted to it on Twitter.
‘The promise was to waive off the loans completely. There was no limit to it. With the government having set up a limit of Rs 1 lakh, lakhs of farmers in the state are feeling cheated. The government has defrauded the farmers of the state.’
The state health minister Sidharth Nath Singh claimed that BJP had kept its promise by waiving off loans of small and marginalised scale farmers of UP. Singh added that the money required to waive off loans will be raised through Kisan Rahat Bonds.
The definition of small farmers, UP government officials said, would include all farmers having up to 5-acre land, while those having 2.5-acre land will be considered as marginalised farmers.
“The scheme will benefit all small and marginalised farmers who took crop loans until March 31, 2016. All of their remaining amount to the banks until March 31, 2017, will be paid by the government,” Singh said.
He added that all farm loan NPAs of small and marginalised farmers will be settled through a one-time settlement. “For this the government will make a one-time payment of Rs 6000 crore, helping around seven lakh farmers to whom the banks had stopped issuing loans.”
Clarifying their stand on UP government’s drive against slaughterhouses, BJP leaders claimed that only 26 illegal slaughterhouses have been closed in the state so far. The party leaders said that they were only following guidelines set by the Supreme Court and the NGT.
Another decision taken by the cabinet was of setting up ‘anti-Romeo’ squads at police thana level. The UP cabinet on Tuesday asked for a special monitoring of these squads.
On the other hand, Punjab has gone ahead with farm loan waiver, despite poor fiscal health.
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