Amid a nationwide unrest among farmers demanding a blanket waiving off of their bank loans, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the states that are keen on granting such loan waivers should arrange the funds from their own resources.
“I have already made the position. States which want to go for these kinds of schemes will have to generate them from their own resources. Beyond that as the central government, I have nothing to say,” Jaitley told reporters when asked if the Centre will help states on the issue of farm loan waivers.
“States like Maharashtra that are keen on farmer loan waiver should generate funds from their own resources,” Jaitley said at a press conference in New Delhi.
Jaitley’s statement asking the states to arrange for their own funds to waive farmer loans comes at a time when at least three BJP-ruled states – Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh – are considering the move.
On Sunday, the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra announced a loan waiver for the state’s 1.07 crore farmers who have land holdings of less than five acres, a move that would cost the state exchequer Rs 30,000 crore.
From June 1, over half a million farmers across Maharashtra, barring coastal Konkan, went on an unprecedented strike, marred by several violent incidents. Major cities like Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and others felt the pinch of the strike as shortages loomed large, coupled with spiralling prices of essentials like milk, fresh fruit, vegetables, and even food grain.
The farmers’ demands included a waiver on farm loans, free electricity, appropriate remunerative prices for their produce, grants for irrigation, pension for farmers aged 60 years and above, and implementation of the M.S. Swaminathan Committee recommendations.
In Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s two-day fast that ended on Sunday was able to end the state wide farmers’ agitation with Mandsaur being the epicentre where five farmers were gunned down in police firing last week.
While Chouhan announced a slew of schemes that he claimed would benefit the farmers, he did not specify if those included waiving the loan of the farmers in his state.
Meanwhile, in his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today, another BJP Chief Minister – Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath – is reported to have discussed his government’s plans to soon announce a formula of farm loan waiver, which would require Rs 36,000 crore.
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