Siddaramaiah govt waives off farmers' loans up to Rs 50000

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday announced that the state government would waive farmers' loans up to Rs 50,000. "We are now under pressure to prevail over the Centre to announce a waiver for farmers who have taken loan from nationalised banks", said a senior BJP functionary.

In another tweet, the chief minister said that loans worth Rs 8,165 crore would thus be written off, benefiting 22,27,506 farmers in the state.

"While loan waivers may give temporary relief to farmers and boost rural consumption, funding of the same would likely worsen the fiscal deficit and leverage levels of the state governments, unless additional resources are mobilised or other expenditure is controlled", credit rating agency ICRA said. The loan waiver announcement from Karnataka Chief Minister comes a day after Union finance minister Arun Jaitley categorically stated that there were no plans of farm loan waiver. Under the scheme, loans up to Rs 50,000 will be waived off by the state government.

The state government has chose to give a flat debt relief worth Rs 2 lakh to marginal irrespective of their loan amount. States like Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have acted fast but the state government is only trying to buy time.

"So far the State government has been responsive to farmers' plight through various measures taken in the agriculture sector".

BJP Parliamentary Board to meet to finalise prez nominee
Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday met Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and held discussions over the Presidential election. Each nomination paper has to be signed by at 50 proposers and an equal number of seconders who can also be MLAs.

Five protesting farmers were shot dead this month in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, which along with Maharashtra is ruled by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Accusing BJP of abandoning and forgetting the farmers, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi during his recent visit to the state had advised the state government to assist them.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said: "Farmers are in distress".

The total farm loans in Karnataka stands at over Rs1.16 trillion. He wrote on Twitter: "On behalf of our farmers, I request @PMOIndia to consider the acute drought & waive farmer loans from commercial banks". One of the condition was that farmers with four wheelers will not be eligible for the advance loan, This norm has been revised and to say that farmers own who any vehicle up to Rs 10 lakh will be eligible for this instalment.