Constantly under attack from Bharatiya Janata Party over alleged delay in farm loan waiver, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath asked the opposition to wait till March 5 when he would make public details about the farm loan waiver scheme.
The distribution of loan waiver certificates however starts from Feb 22 onwards.
Nath’s reply came during a discussion on a debate in MP assembly under section 139 on Wednesday. The Congress had also got approval for vote-on-account on the day and the BJP persistently attacked the Congress saying the ruling party has provisioned measly amount for loan waiver claiming the state exchequer’s purse was empty.
“The government has provisioned Rs 6,000 cr for farmers while the loan waiver requires mammoth amount of Rs 56,000 cr,” exCM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in the debate. “Whether the state government plans to waive off loans on paper offering certificates to farmers and not paying anything to banks,” questioned Chouhan adding the Congress government is repeatedly claiming that they are left with no funds.
By March 5, we would waive off loans of 25 lakh farmers, he added. Responding to this, CM Kamal Nath said it was true that MP government has run out of funds and it was Chouhan’s ex-ministers who had pointed out this.
“Loan waiver was no election promise, we had announced this utmost faith and feelings,” added Nath claiming the farmers would be offered no dues certificates to make them realize the loan if actually waived off and hopefully the BJP would also then accept this.
Please wait till March 5, said Nath when he plans to make public all the details of how the Congress government waived off farm loans. “I had made thorough researches into this and I had started preparing on this almost six months ago before coming to power,” said the Chief Minister.
Chouhan retorted claiming the BJP had left the state in revenue surplus and all the loans were under the permissible limit of 3.5% of the GDP.
Responding to Chouhan’s allegations that CM Kamal Nath did not visit farmers in cases of hailstorm and low temperatures, Nath hit back saying visiting the farms and getting posing for cameras might not solve the issue and he believes in addressing the issue.