Follow Uttar Pradesh, Announce Farm Loan Waiver, Opposition Asks Maharashtra Government

The Opposition has asked the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) led government in Maharashtra to take a cue from the party-headed administration in Uttar Pradesh, and announce a farm loan waiver in the state.

Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) members on Wednesday vociferously raised the farm loan waiver issue in the Legislative Council and stalled proceedings as they accused the Devendra Fadnavis government of dragging its feet on the matter.

Raising the issue, Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde of NCP said the BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh has announced a loan waiver scheme for farmers, but the same party in Maharashtra is hesitating to follow suit.

Referring to the BJP jibe at Opposition leaders travelling by air conditioned buses during the just concluded ‘Sangharsh Yatra', Munde said similar vehicles were used by members of the saffron party when they took out their yatra.

As the Opposition members entered into the Well of the House and raised slogans, Deputy Chairman Manikrao Thakre adjourned the proceedings for the day after tabling papers.

Earlier, as the House assembled for the day, Sunil Tatkare (NCP) moved an adjournment motion and referred to the decision taken by the Yogi Adityanath government on Tuesday.

“The Uttar Pradesh government is facing financial crunch yet it announced a loan waiver. The Uttar Pradesh government says it will float bonds to raise the money. Why can't we do something similar,” he questioned.

Tatkare said the government had money to waive off debts of industrialists but not farmers. Neelam Gorhe of Shiv Sena said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath did not resort to announcing sops but came out with a loan waiver.

“In the Assembly, BJP member Prashant Bumb said there was no need for a loan waiver in Maharashtra. Whereas Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state will study the Uttar Pradesh mode,” she said.

She wanted the government to announce a loan waiver in the ongoing Budget session.

Leader of the House and Minister for Cooperation Chandrakant Patil said Fadnavis has asked the officials to study how Uttar Pradesh was going about with the debt waiver.

“Besides this, directions have been issued to examine the Madras High Court ruling asking the Tamil Nadu government to write off debt of farmers,” he said.

Patil said in order to improve the economic status of cultivators, the state government has allocated Rs 25,000 crore for agriculture development. The government has earmarked another Rs 12,000 crore in the budget for various schemes for agriculturists, he said.

As the Opposition members continued to raise slogans, Council Chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes. The House was adjourned for another 30 minutes later.

As the din continued, Thakre adjourned the proceedings for the day.

Also Read: Maharashtra Studying UP Farm Loan Waiver, Says Chief Minister