National

BJP panel on loan waiver

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party has set up a committee under the chairmanship of the former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha to study the loan waiver for farmers announced in the Union budget.

The committee is expected to look at the reality of their indebtedness on the ground and see how the waiver will work. Briefing reporters after a meeting of the parliamentary party here on Tuesday, BJP leader V.K. Malhotra said the waiver was “too little” and “too late.” It would not cover even half of the farmers in the country.

Even as the committee was set up, the BJP had come up with its demands — lower interest rate on credit to farmers to four per cent; compensate those who have already paid their dues to banks; bring under the waiver scheme farmers who have borrowed from private moneylenders; and ensure that fresh credit to farmers is not choked.

Besides L.K. Advani, who presided, BJP president Rajnath Singh and leader in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh addressed the party MPs.

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