Yogi govt in a fix over loan waiver to farmers

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, March 28

The BJP’s poll promise of writing off farmers’ loan in the very first Cabinet of the BJP government has become a tricky issue for the Yogi Adityanath government.

Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah repeatedly declared during the poll campaign that the decision would be taken in the very first Cabinet meeting of the BJP government.

The 10-day-old Yogi government has not yet held a formal Cabinet meeting though a number of crucial decisions have been taken during the three informal meeting with the ministers.

Admitting to be “working” on the various proposals for loan waiver for farmers, the Yogi government has been deferring a formal Cabinet meeting.

A state government statement issued here today said Finance Ninister Rajesh Agarwal was regularly holding meetings with various government agencies to work out this knotty issue.

The statement said in order to bear the burden of loan waiver, the government was looking at assistance from the transfer-to-state funds from the Centre. The state is also considering taking loan for the loan waiver scheme and giving the money to banks in order to write off loans.

The state is already reeling under the burden of Rs 25,000 crore due to the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.

A senior Finance Department official said the loan waiver would put an estimated burden of more than Rs 35,000 crore and the government would have to decide the cut-off date before getting an idea of the exact amount that is to be waived.