The much-awaited farm waiver scheme of Yogi Government could see the light of the day on April 4 when Chief Minister Aditya Nath Yogi will hold its first Cabinet meeting in which key issues are likely to be taken up.
Health Minister Sidharthanath Singh told reporters that the first Cabinet meeting of Yogi Government will be held on April 4. He did not elaborate about the agenda but said, “The Government will take up the issue which it has promised during election campaign.”
Farm loan waiver was one of the key promises of BJP which swept to power with two-thirds majority in the recent Assembly polls. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared in an election rally in Fatehpur that if BJP comes to power he would ensure that Government in its first cabinet meeting takes decision to waive of farmers’ loan.
“We had made some promised in our sankalp patra. We will fulfill all the promises in letter and in spirit,” Singh said.
The Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Sahi who is in Deoria told this reporter that BJP government will come out with a concrete plan on farm waiver scheme. “We are working on this scheme seriously and a concrete decision will be taken soon. This decision will likely to benefit over 2 crore small and marginal farmers,” he said but did not clarify about the Cabinet meeting on April 4.
UP, the most populous State is home to 1.83 crore marginal and 30.6 lakh as small farmers. As per an estimate farm loan waiver of small and marginal farmers (landholdings of up to two hectares) will cost UP Government nearly Rs36,000 crore if it takes a call to waive loans taken from all cooperative as well as scheduled commercial banks.
The total loan amount for farmers in Uttar Pradesh is of the order of Rs8,400 crore from cooperative banks and primary agriculture cooperative societies, and Rs27,419 crore from commercial banks.
“Implementation of this loan waiver scheme would be very a Herculean task for this government. It is very easy to make promise but difficult to implement them. Probably therefore this government was not able to hold its first cabinet meeting. All eyes will be on that meeting as what decision this government takes and if it waives of loans how will it generate resources,” Dr SP Pandey of Pt Govind Ballabh Institute of Studies in Rural Development said in lucknow.