After winning the hearts of farmers in Rajasthan, the Congress government in the state has announced its next major step with an eye on the upcoming general polls. Shanti Dhariwal, the State Urban Development Minister has declared that the government will now waive loans of all the families where farmers committed suicide.
Soon after a meeting of the loan waiving committee on 5th January, the minister said many farmers were forced to commit suicide in Rajasthan owing to non-payment of reasonable prices for their crop produce by the previous BJP government. Dhariwal said, “In Hadauti district alone, more than 70 farmers had committed suicide. Our government will bring all those troubled families under our waiver plan.”
Dhariwal further said all the loans of these farming families will be waived. She added “a formal decision is yet to be taken regarding this but it (waiver) is likely to be announced after the next committee meeting on 10th January.”
An inter-department group, which was formed to examine the modalities of farm loan waivers in the state, has advised Chief Minister Gehlot to waive all loans of farmers who have committed suicide.
On the other hand, Madan Lal Saini, BJP State President has accused the Congress of “lying about farmer suicides during the BJP period in office”, adding “There have been 3 farmer suicides in just 20 days of Congress rule.”
The implementation of the loan waiver promise will impose a staggering burden of around Rs. 18,000 crore.
