Speaking at Rajya Sabha today, union finance minister Arun Jaitley today ruled out the possibility of centre paying states for the farm loans waiver. However, he stated that if the states want to do the same from the resources available to them.
Arun Jaitley clarified that the centre will not adopt a selective approach of providing loan waiver to one or two states. However, he also stated that the kind of services which are already provided by the centre, like interest subvention will continue to be provided.
He further went on to say that if a state wants to provide such waiver, it can do in personal capacity, with the resources available to them. However, a situation of center giving grants to selective states and not to all, will not arise.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had earlier announced that the newly formed BJP government in Uttar Pradesh will waive off the loans of farmers, which include small and marginal farmers, as it was promised in party’s manifesto of the elections.
Before this, Congress had demanded the central government to waive off loans of farmers across the country, citing an example where UPA government had done the same in 2006. Punjab CM captain Amarinder Singh had also met PM and Finance Minister recently with a request of getting the farm loans waived for the farmers in Punjab.