The Prime Minister today, addressing a gathering in Jammu, targeted the Congress party for making phoney loan waiver promises to the farmers in
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
"In Madhya Pradesh Congress had promised a loan waiver before the elections and now waiver is being granted to those who where not facing any distress and those farmers who are actually under the burden of loans are getting Rs 13 as loan waiver," Modi said.
The Prime Minister alleged that the waiver promises made by the Congress in various states leaves out 70-80% of the farmers who are actually in distress. He, however claimed that the newly launched PM-KISAN yojna, which was announced by the interim Finance Minister
Piyush Goyal in his budget speech, will help 95 farmers out of 100 every year.
"The new PM-KISAN yojna will uproot the problem our farmers are facing, on the other hand the loan waivers are just a temporary fix," he said.
The Prime Minister also boasted about the Jan Dhan yojna, saying, "When I started bank accounts for farmers some people were laughing not realising the use of such schemes, now when the benefit of Rs 6000 annually will reach the farmers we will get to realise the importance of opening bank accounts of farmers."
Modi said that the previous UPA government in 2008 used the farmers to come back to power when they announced loan waivers. Farmers during 2008-09 were staring at a Rs 6 lakh crore loans across the nation. "Under the remote control government farmers were promised loan waivers but only loans totaling Rs 52,000 crore written off and money went to middle-men and the loyalists of the previous government."
The PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PMKISAN) launched on Friday will benefit 120 million farmers with cultivable land of up to 2 hectares, interim finance minister Piyush Goyal said in the
Narendra Modi government’s last budget before general elections. The scheme will be applicable for landowners only and not for tenant farmers.
The Centre will transfer Rs 6,000 every year to small and marginal farmers aiming to address unrest among cultivators who have suffered due to adverse weather and weak prices. The funds will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiary farmers in three installments of Rs 2,000 each, starting retrospectively from December 1.