BJP to have farmer adalats to monitor loan waiver scheme
The BJP is keeping farmer distress as a central plank in its electoral campaign. In a bid to counter any political mileage that the UPA could gain from its farm loan waiver, the party is undertaking a campaign - kisan adalats or farmer courts.
By ET Bureau |
NEW DELHI: The BJP is keeping farmer distress as a central plank in its electoral campaign. In a bid to counter any political mileage that the UPA could gain from its farm loan waiver, the party is undertaking a campaign ��� kisan adalats or farmer courts ��� starting this month to determine the actual implementation of the loan waiver and other farm related schemes.
Making its position clear, the BJP says that it isn���t against the idea of farm loan waiver. After all in the recently concluded Karnataka elections, the party played up Mr B S Yeddyurappa���s loan waiver scheme implemented during his tenure as the state���s finance minister. What the BJP objects to is the scope and ambit of the UPA government���s farm waiver scheme. The party has described the scheme announced in the budget for relief to small and marginal farmers was ���too little, too disappointing.���
���The farm loan waiver announced by the UPA government is too little, too disappointing and does not address the concerns of farmers. It falls short in many ways as was pointed out by the BJP, farmer organisations and even Congress MPs in Parliament,��� former BJP president Mr Venkaiah Naidu said.
The party���s argument is that the scheme not withstanding agrarian crisis is spreading and rural indebtedness is increasing. ���This is a life and death situation for farmers,��� Mr Naidu said.
On February 29, finance minister P Chidambaram announced the farm loan waiver scheme for Rs 60,000 crore . The package was later revised and the total outlay for the scheme was increased to nearly Rs 72,000 crore.
However, the BJP contends that the scheme has done little to address the real issues of rural indebtedness and farmer distress. ���More than 200 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra and 110 in Andhra Pradesh after the farm loan waiver was announced. Only 18 of these 200 farmers in Maharashtra were eligible for the loan waiver as many conditions have been fixed for availing it,��� Mr Naidu said.
The BJP maintains that even the revised scheme doesn���t address the real issue. The party contends that implementation issues apart, the selection of beneficiaries of the scheme is faulty.
As per the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, marginal farmers have been defined as those with less than 1 hectare of land. Farmers with between 1-2 hectares will fall under the small farmer category, and the remaining ones will be classified ���other farmers���. In the case of a small or marginal farmer, the entire ���eligible amount��� shall be waived.
They will also be eligible for fresh agricultural loans, upon the waiver of the eligible amount. For one-time settlements for ���other farmers��� who will pay installments, the last dates of payment will be September 30, 2008, March 31, 2009 and June 30, 2009. Farmers who have availed investment credit loans not exceeding Rs 50,000, will fall under the ���small farmer��� category.
If the loan amount exceeds Rs 50,000, the farmer will fall under the ���other farmer��� category, irrespective of the land holding. The BJP says that these guidelines translate into benefit for a very minuscule section of the farmers.
The party has demanded that conditions like the upper limit of land holding of two and half hectares, waiving of only those loans which were taken from commercial banks and not from private moneylenders, and having farmland in one���s own name should be done away with.
���Only 30% of farmers have taken loans from the banks. The National Sample Survey (NSS) data shows that the number of those taking loans from banks has gone down by eight per cent in recent years. Moreover, farmers having 10 hectares of land in drought-prone areas like Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh are worse off than those having two hectares in fertile regions like Punjab,��� Mr Naidu said.
To illustrate how the UPA government���s failure to address issues of rural indebtedness and farm distress the BJP has consistently drawn on the experience of the prime minister���s farm waiver scheme in Vidarbha. The whole package was skewed in favour of farmers with irrigated lands. While it was really the farmers in the non-irrigated areas who were contending unsuccessfully with the vagaries of nature and market forces. IN the end, farmer suicides continued unabated.
Making its position clear, the BJP says that it isn���t against the idea of farm loan waiver. After all in the recently concluded Karnataka elections, the party played up Mr B S Yeddyurappa���s loan waiver scheme implemented during his tenure as the state���s finance minister. What the BJP objects to is the scope and ambit of the UPA government���s farm waiver scheme. The party has described the scheme announced in the budget for relief to small and marginal farmers was ���too little, too disappointing.���
���The farm loan waiver announced by the UPA government is too little, too disappointing and does not address the concerns of farmers. It falls short in many ways as was pointed out by the BJP, farmer organisations and even Congress MPs in Parliament,��� former BJP president Mr Venkaiah Naidu said.
The party���s argument is that the scheme not withstanding agrarian crisis is spreading and rural indebtedness is increasing. ���This is a life and death situation for farmers,��� Mr Naidu said.
On February 29, finance minister P Chidambaram announced the farm loan waiver scheme for Rs 60,000 crore . The package was later revised and the total outlay for the scheme was increased to nearly Rs 72,000 crore.
However, the BJP contends that the scheme has done little to address the real issues of rural indebtedness and farmer distress. ���More than 200 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra and 110 in Andhra Pradesh after the farm loan waiver was announced. Only 18 of these 200 farmers in Maharashtra were eligible for the loan waiver as many conditions have been fixed for availing it,��� Mr Naidu said.
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The BJP maintains that even the revised scheme doesn���t address the real issue. The party contends that implementation issues apart, the selection of beneficiaries of the scheme is faulty.
As per the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, marginal farmers have been defined as those with less than 1 hectare of land. Farmers with between 1-2 hectares will fall under the small farmer category, and the remaining ones will be classified ���other farmers���. In the case of a small or marginal farmer, the entire ���eligible amount��� shall be waived.
They will also be eligible for fresh agricultural loans, upon the waiver of the eligible amount. For one-time settlements for ���other farmers��� who will pay installments, the last dates of payment will be September 30, 2008, March 31, 2009 and June 30, 2009. Farmers who have availed investment credit loans not exceeding Rs 50,000, will fall under the ���small farmer��� category.
If the loan amount exceeds Rs 50,000, the farmer will fall under the ���other farmer��� category, irrespective of the land holding. The BJP says that these guidelines translate into benefit for a very minuscule section of the farmers.
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The party has demanded that conditions like the upper limit of land holding of two and half hectares, waiving of only those loans which were taken from commercial banks and not from private moneylenders, and having farmland in one���s own name should be done away with.
���Only 30% of farmers have taken loans from the banks. The National Sample Survey (NSS) data shows that the number of those taking loans from banks has gone down by eight per cent in recent years. Moreover, farmers having 10 hectares of land in drought-prone areas like Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh are worse off than those having two hectares in fertile regions like Punjab,��� Mr Naidu said.
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To illustrate how the UPA government���s failure to address issues of rural indebtedness and farm distress the BJP has consistently drawn on the experience of the prime minister���s farm waiver scheme in Vidarbha. The whole package was skewed in favour of farmers with irrigated lands. While it was really the farmers in the non-irrigated areas who were contending unsuccessfully with the vagaries of nature and market forces. IN the end, farmer suicides continued unabated.
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