PCC president Niranjan Patnaik on Thursday hit out at the BJD Government for a huge debt burden on the State which has risen to Rs 92,000 crore.
Patnaik said the total debt of the State is around 20.73%t of the GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product). During 2009-10, the total debt burden of the State was Rs 37,730 crore which rose to Rs 43,273 crore in 2014-15 and now, it is Rs 92,000 crore.
He said while the per capita debt burden is rising sharply, still the State Government is availing loan after loan to fund its populist schemes.
Patnaik also said that 90% farmers’ families in Odisha are indebted. They have availed credit from banks, cooperative societies and private money lenders to meet the cost of farming. But the income generated from their produce is not sufficient to take care of the daily needs of their families.
This makes them unable to repay loan in time and some of them out of frustration are committing suicide. On the contrary, least concerned to mitigate the plight of the farmers, the Government is only declaring schemes after schemes, charged Patnaik.
He said further that the farmers are being tortured by private money lenders. They are not getting seed, fertilizer and pesticide in proper time. The Government is not taking any step to connect them to the markets. Also, there are no cold storages to preserve the agri produce. In this situation farmers are bound to go for distress sale, Patnaik said.
