Farm loan waiver comes under fire of Opposition & Left parties
The Centre’s Rs 60,000-crore loan-waiver package came under fire of the Opposition and Left parties in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: The Centre���s Rs 60,000-crore loan-waiver package came under fire of the Opposition and Left parties in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Describing the scheme as a ���futile��� exercise, BJP deputy leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra, while participating in the discussion on the budget, contended that barely 15% of farmers would be benefited from the exercise, while the remaining 85 per cent would remain outside its purview.
���The finance minister says government would repay the debt in 3-4 years. But it would be in power only for a year. So aren���t you passing the burden of repaying the debt on to the future governments?��� the BJP leader asked.
CPM���s Rupchand Pal, also picked holes in the package. Quoting from a media report, he said as many as 75 per cent of the farmers would not benefit from the loan waiver, and accused the government of resorting to ���a mere tokenism.������
The Left leader argued that majority of the farmers were indebted to money-lenders and other non-institutionalised lenders, and not to the banks. ���Farmers in the worst-affected Vidarbha (Maharashtra) and the Anantpur region in Andhra Pradesh would not benefit from the farm loan waiver,������ he claimed.
He also sought to know what were the government���s plans for farmers who had repaid their loans, accusing the Centre of dividing the farmers into those who had paid back their loans and those who had not.
The SP leader also demanded that the government should lower the interest rate on farm loans from the present rate of seven per cent to four per cent.
Earlier, speaking on behalf of the BJP, Mr Malhotra came down heavily on the budget, dubbing it ���communal,������ and compared Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, who too, he claimed, had advocated that Muslims should have the first right over the state���s resources.
���In the budget, the government said if a Muslim student goes for higher education, he would be entitled to scholarship. Why is it that there is nothing for a poor Hindu student or a Dalit student? Doesn���t it amount to encouraging conversion?������ he asked.
Describing the scheme as a ���futile��� exercise, BJP deputy leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra, while participating in the discussion on the budget, contended that barely 15% of farmers would be benefited from the exercise, while the remaining 85 per cent would remain outside its purview.
���The finance minister says government would repay the debt in 3-4 years. But it would be in power only for a year. So aren���t you passing the burden of repaying the debt on to the future governments?��� the BJP leader asked.
CPM���s Rupchand Pal, also picked holes in the package. Quoting from a media report, he said as many as 75 per cent of the farmers would not benefit from the loan waiver, and accused the government of resorting to ���a mere tokenism.������
The Left leader argued that majority of the farmers were indebted to money-lenders and other non-institutionalised lenders, and not to the banks. ���Farmers in the worst-affected Vidarbha (Maharashtra) and the Anantpur region in Andhra Pradesh would not benefit from the farm loan waiver,������ he claimed.
He also sought to know what were the government���s plans for farmers who had repaid their loans, accusing the Centre of dividing the farmers into those who had paid back their loans and those who had not.
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He also asked the Government to redefine small and marginal farmers, whose loans were proposed to be waived off. Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav picked up from where the CPM leader had left. Citing the plight of the debt-ridden farmers of Bundelkhand, he said that the average size of landholding in the region was 8-10 hectares. ���The farmers, who are all burdened with huge debts, obviously won���t be benefited from the scheme,������ he said, and asked the government to redefine small and marginal farmers.The SP leader also demanded that the government should lower the interest rate on farm loans from the present rate of seven per cent to four per cent.
Earlier, speaking on behalf of the BJP, Mr Malhotra came down heavily on the budget, dubbing it ���communal,������ and compared Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, who too, he claimed, had advocated that Muslims should have the first right over the state���s resources.
���In the budget, the government said if a Muslim student goes for higher education, he would be entitled to scholarship. Why is it that there is nothing for a poor Hindu student or a Dalit student? Doesn���t it amount to encouraging conversion?������ he asked.
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Accusing the UPA government of resorting to vote-bank politics, he said: ``The prime minister said Muslims have the first right on government resources. After Aurangzeb, Mr Manmohan Singh is the first person to have said so. This is like bringing back Jaziya, a tax which was imposed by Aurangzeb only on the Hindus. We believe in justice for all and appeasement to none.������Download
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