The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, at its first Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, announced its decision to waive farmers’ loans worth ₹30,729 crore, writing off all farm loans up to ₹1 lakh.
The government will also settle around ₹6,000 crore of NPAs of seven lakh small and marginalised farmers, to whom the banks had stopped issuing loans, through a one-time payment
The double decision, a major promise made as part of the BJP’s poll campaign, will benefit over 86 lakh small and marginalised farmers, who had taken loans until March 31, 2016. The total cost to the State exchequer will amount to ₹36,000 crore.
The decisions were passed in the first cabinet meeting called by the Chief Minister . Cabinet ministers Shrikant Sharma and Sidharth Nath Singh briefed the media about the decisions.
The decisions are expected to be passed in the forthcoming Budget Session. Sidharth Nath Singh described the first cabinet meeting as the “beginning of the Sankalp Patr agenda implementation.”
The government also said that all farmers having up to 5 acre land will be counted as small farmers, while those with 2.5-acre land will be categorized as marginalised farmers. Along with it, the State would also set up 5000 centres for wheat procurement and would start of by purchasing 40 lakh metric tonnes of wheat at a rate of Rs 10 per more than the minimum support price per quintal.
The purchase will directly purchase the wheat on the basis of their Aadhar cars without the involvement of middlemen. A “Kisan Rahat Bond” will be introduced for raising money for the farm loan waiver.
In its election manifesto, the BJP had reached out to the peasant community, promising waiver of crop loans for marginal farmers and loan with zero interest rate for marginal farmers.
While BJP leaders celebrated the cabinet’s decision, opposition parties criticized the government’s decision to waive off loans up to Rs 1 lakh saying it deceived the poor and marginal farmers.
SP president and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said by putting a Rs 1 lakh cap on the loan waiver, the BJP government had betrayed poor farmers.
. “The promise was for a full loan waiver, not with a cap. Crores of farmers are feeling cheated due to the cap of Rs `1 lakh. This is betrayal of poor farmers,” Mr. Yadav tweeted.
Randeep Surjewala, Congress spokesperson, said the loan waiver was “incomplete” and a “ardhsatya.”
“Oont ke munh mein jeera, nahi hua vayda poora,” he said, claiming that the loan waiver step would not provide relief to the farmer or rescue them from the grip of debt.
Mr. Surjewala argued that farmer loans in the State amounted to Rs 92,000 crore but the State had only waived off Rs 36000. Marginalised and small farmers would not be benefitted. “Out of the 2.33 crore farmers in UP, 2.15 crore are small and marginal farmers,” he said.
Published - April 04, 2017 11:33 pm IST
