In a bid to provide relief to farmers gripped by drought, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday announced a waiver of interest on their medium- and long-term loans availed from cooperative banks if they pay up the principal amount.
The Chief Minister made this announcement while replying to a debate on issues related to North Karnataka on the last day of the 10-day winter session of the State legislature in Belagavi.
Counter-attack
Launching a counter-attack at the BJP, which ridiculed him for not announcing any loan waiver scheme, the Chief Minister recalled that the then Chief Minister and BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa had remarked that he did not have a note printing machine to waive farm loans though loan waiver was part of his party’s pre-poll promise.
Taking exception to Mr. Yediyurappa’s recent remarks that he would launch a struggle against the government if farm loans were not waived, the Chief Minister sought to know from the veteran BJP leader if he had waived farm loans when he was the Chief Minister.
In other States
Pointing out that 14 States in the country were reeling under drought, Mr. Siddaramaiah urged the BJP-led government at the Centre to waive farm loans in these States. Maintaining that he had walked the talk, the Chief Minister told the BJP to learn to keep up its promises.
Leader of the Opposition R. Ashok demanded that the government waive loans of farmers up to ₹2 lakh and provide a drought compensation of ₹25,000 an acre for those whose crops had dried up.
White Paper sought
He demanded a White Paper on the State’s finances so that there would be clarity on whether the government would be able to fund it’s welfare measures.
He also alleged that none of the measures announced for the development of North Karnataka by the Chief Minister in the winter session had a clear financial allocation. The BJP staged a walkout expressing dissatisfaction that the announcement of schemes without financial support were futile.
