National

BJP says loan waiver will backfire in June

MUMBAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said that the government’s loan waiver for small and marginal farmers would backfire in June when the farmers find out that the money has not been deposited in the banks.

Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari told reporters at a press conference that the waiver would benefit banks and not farmers. He said banks had huge non performing assets which would be wiped clean but no one knows from where the funds for fresh loans would be deposited.

He said western Maharashtra farmers with small land holdings would benefit unlike Vidarbha which had larger land holdings. The suicides had not stopped after the waiver, he said. The BJP would continue to agitate for a complete loan waiver for farmers across the State and would launch a series of agitations on this and other issues from April all over the State, he said.

He said the government had gone back on many promises in the past including free electricity and higher prices for cotton and the party did not place faith in the loan waiver announcement.

It was decided to continue campaigning for a complete loan waiver, a comprehensive crop insurance scheme, better remunerative prices for farm produce, loans at the rate of four per cent interest for farmers or a comprehensive waiver of loans from money lenders and loans based on the value of the land holdings.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu