Demand For Farm Loan Waiver Growing in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal: Demand for farmers’ loan waiver is growing in Madhya Pradesh following a similar deal in Uttar Pradesh by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Shivkant Dixit, regional organisation secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, an RSS affiliate, has sought loan waiver for farmers in MP on the lines of Uttar Pradesh.

Dixit said that loan waiver was not a personal agenda of Adityanath but that of the BJP and a part of party’s election manifesto. Large numbers of farmers in Madhya Pradesh too possess Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) and they are not able to repay loans due to drought and other calamities. So a loan waiver is needed, he said.

Arun Yadav, state president of Congress too has made a similar demand, saying that hundreds of debt-ridden farmers end lives every in Madhya Pradesh.

Farmers across the state too are demanding loan waiver from the BJP government. Radheshyam Patidar, a farmer from Betul, which has witnesses several farmer suicides in last few years, said, “You can visit any village and farmers are possess Kisan Credit Cards but are stressed after not able to repay loans.”

Raghveer Yadav from Tikamgarh, a farmer, claimed that crops have been damaged due to erratic monsoon in last few years so farmers are not able to repay what they borrowed from different sources including banks and co-operative societies and badly need loan waiver.

Meanwhile, the ruling BJP did not seem in any mood to resort to any measure like loan waiver in near future. Chairman, Civil Supplies Corporation, Hitesh Vajpayee said that the state government was already doing several things for farmers including waiving interest on agri-loans and also waiving off portion of principal amount.

“CM Shivraj Chauhan is already known as Kisan Putra due to his agricultural-centric policies,” he said.

Minister for Co-operative affairs, Vishwas Sarang, said that when the state government does not charge any interest on farm loans that it can’t be termed agriculture-loan. Party legislator Rameshwar Sharma also said that no interest in charged on agri-loans and even 10% subsidy is offered on farm loans in Madhya Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Chouhan has announced Gramodaya Abhiyan with an objective of doubling the agricultural income from April 14 across Madhya Pradesh.

Estimates suggest that there are 86 lakh farmers in the state and 66 lakh of them have secured loan from different sources and loan waiver could cost Rs 74,000 crore to the state exchequer.

National Crime Records Bureau for 2015 show that 1290 people related to farming including 581 farmers committed suicide.