Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday promised to introduce a separate “kisan budget” and bring a law to prevent farmers from being jailed for inability to repay farm loans.
Mounting a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Gandhi said if the BJP-led government can waive huge debts of industrialists, why should the distressed farmers be punished.
“A new law will be brought if the Congress is voted to power. It will ensure that no farmer is sent to jail for being unable to repay agriculture loan,” Mr. Gandhi said, at a rally in the coastal Odisha town of Balasore.
Similarly, a separate budget for the agriculture sector will be introduced which will be presented before the general budget, the Congress chief said. “We will introduce a kisan budget which will specify the amount of farm loans to be waived a year in advance, and Minimum Support Price (MSP) for foodgrains. Places where cold storage and food processing units are to be set up will also be shared a year in advance,” he said.
He said ₹72,000 will be deposited in the bank account of the woman member of each of the five crore poor families per year under the ‘NYAY’ scheme. Stating that poor States like Odisha and Bihar will benefit immensely from NYAY scheme, he said every month ₹6,000 will be given to the poor family whose monthly income is less than ₹12,000.
Addressing a rally in the north Bihar town of Samastipur, where he shared the stage for the first time after general elections were announced with RJD heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, Mr. Gandhi deplored the insulting treatment meted out to Lalu Prasad, the jailed supremo of his alliance partner and warned the BJP-led coalition of a backlash in the polls.
Former State Minister Ashok Ram of the Congress is pitted against Ramchandra Paswan, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother, at Samastipur (SC reserved seat).