india

Updated: Aug 24, 2019 00:37 IST

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Friday said farm loans of one loan account of up to Rs 2 lakh would be waived but farmers’ associations termed this a change in his government’s stand and threatened to launch an agitation.

In an open letter to farmers, Nath said: “Loans of all those farmers whose loans are Rs 2 lakh or less (per head) against one loan account or one of (the) loans, in case of more than one loan, will be waived as per priority to give more benefit to small farmers.”

Soon after taking charge as chief minister in December 2018, Nath had announced a scheme to waive farm loans of up to Rs 2 lakh for all farmers but did not mention any specific conditions.

According to farmers’ associations, there was no such “rider” till now.

“The state government had promised that it would waive loans of farmers up to Rs 2 lakh, irrespective of their loan amount on higher side and number of loan accounts,” said Rahul Raj, Madhya Pradesh president of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangthan.

He said the CM’s letter made it clear that if a farmer had an outstanding loan exceeding Rs 2 lakh, he or she would not be eligible for the waiver. “And also, if a farmer has more than one loan account, the government will only choose one of the accounts to waive the loan,” he claimed.

No state government official was willing to comment on Nath’s letter, saying the CM has made the announcement.

In the letter, Nath emphasized that his government was facing financial constraints, despite which loans worth Rs 7,000 crore of two million farmers had been waived in the last eight months.

The state government has received 4.8 million applications from 3.7 million farmers, the letter said. Nath attributed the delay in implementing the second phase of the waiver to scrutiny of loan accounts and asked farmers to renew their loan accounts till their loans are waived.

Rahul Raj said there was no option left but to launch a movement against the government’s alleged betrayal. He was backed by Anil Yadav, state president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, who said protests would begin across the state if Nath failed to keep his promise of waiving all farm loans up to Rs 2 lakh.

Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party leader Hitesh Bajpai said, “We are hardly surprised. Our leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said in their speeches during the assembly elections that Congress would never waive farmers’ loans.”

Agriculture minister Sachin Yadav said, “Our government doesn’t want any loophole to be overlooked, so it requires major scrutiny.”

He said the names of many farmers who had not taken loans were in the list of defaulters. “There are several irregularities and we are looking into it,” he said, assuring farmers that the next round of loan waiver would be announced soon.