The Madhya Pradesh cabinet on Saturday gives nod to a farm loan waiver scheme that aims to waive farm loan worth Rs 2 lakh for each farmer in the state. Kamal Nath led Congress government also extended the cut off date for farm loan waiver from March 31, 2018, to December 12, 2018.
With this, Farmers who had taken loan till December 12, 2018, will now be eligible under Farm Loan Waiver Scheme of the State government. Earlier while assuming Chief Ministerial Kamal Nath spelled out details of the scheme by saying that only loan amount outstanding as on March 31, 2018, will be eligible for the waiver.
According to reports, two farmers in Madhya Pradesh committed suicide when they came to know that they are not eligible for the Farm Loan waiver under the new government’s farm loan waiver scheme. The Suicides of farmers triggered controversy with BJP accusing Congress of playing with Farmers for electoral gain.
Former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also criticized the Congress government for setting a cut-off date for the loan waiver.
The new cutoff date came as a relief for to thousands of farmers in the state. The loan waiver in Madhya Pradesh is expected to cost the state exchequer around ₹35,000-₹38,000 crore and benefit close to 34 lakh farmers of the state. The decision comes at a time when the ruling party has attacked Congress over its loan waiver promises. Agrarian crisis and farm loan waiver were important pre-poll promises of the Rahul Gandhi-led party in the recently held assembly polls in three key states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.
The Farmers in Madhya Pradesh had reportedly stopped repaying their loans on the backdrop of Congress pre-poll promise of Farm Loan Waiver.
Senior Congress Leader Kamal Nath who took oath as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on December 17 sign the farmers’ loan waiver file immediately after assuming the office.
Similarly, Bhupesh Baghel led government in Chhattisgarh and Ashok Gehlot led in Rajasthan has waived farm loans soon taking the charge.
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