Union Minister for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala on Tuesday said that “The UP government in April had requested the Union government for the need to arrange adequate resources separately to ensure implementation of the decision for agriculture debt waiver.”
He informed that UP government had made three requests. In the first request, the government had asked for a help of Rs 36,529 crore to be provided to UP in 2017-18 in regards with the farmer loan waiver announced by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. When there was no response to the first request another one was sent to the Central government seeking the help of amount the Centre could provide and grant the permission to raise the remaining amount by the bonds. When the Centre did not respond to the second request also, UP government sent another one, this time saying that if the Centre was not able to provide any grant in aid help than it at least gives the permission to raise the amount by bonds. It also requested that the amount raids by bonds may be permitted to be kept out of the annual borrowing ceiling fixed for UP in 2017-18.
Referring to these statements of Parshottam Rupala, UP Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal in this statement to ET said that UP never sought any help from the Centre to raise fund for the loan waiver. He further added that “We are not floating any bonds. Not even a rupee would be sought as a loan from any financial institution. The state is paying off farm loans of Rs 36,000 crore entirely from its own pocket, as per our budget.”
He also said that he did not send any such requests to the Centre and is not aware if personally, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sent them.