By
Raju Kumar
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government
has started the process of receiving applications for farm loan waiver and
Chief Minister Kamal Nath says that by the end of February the amount of loan
waiver up to Rs. 2 lakh will be deposited in the accounts of eligible farmers.
But
experts are sceptical about the success of the scheme. They feel that many
farmers will be deprived of the benefits under the scheme. Jaswinder Singh,
state secretary, CPI(M) says the scheme will exclude 70 per cent of the farmers
who have taken loans from the Mahajan. Former chief minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan had announced interest-free loans to farmers, but the cooperative banks
were reluctant to lend, forcing the farmers to depend on Mahajani loans.
Similarly, banks started to ignore loans to farmer due to the debt waiver.
Jaswinder Singh has proposed the constitution of a commission to examine all
these issues and study how to provide direct benefits to the farmers. He says
that even after the Congress came to power, four farmers in the state have
committed suicide.
The
chief minister has said that a market study is being conducted to examine debts
owed by farmers to Mahajan and that the government will make all possible
efforts to curb informal loans. With the ‘Jai Kisan crop loan write off
scheme’, 55 lakh farmers will get Rs 50,000 crore worth of crop loan waiver.
Certificates will also be given to the farmers after the loan disbursement and
all the procedure will be completed by February.
Dr.
Sunilam, executive chairman of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, says that the debt of
farmers is the responsibility of the government and therefore it has to ensure
adequate budget provision for it before the Code of Conduct for the 2019
general election comes into force. . He says that the government will have to
ensure that the fertile lands of farmers will not be acquired in the name of
investment and all land acquired from farmers under the Land Acquisition Act
must be returned to them.
Chief
Minister Kamal Nath had said that the government is committed to make Madhya
Pradesh competitive to receive investment. He pointed out that unlike other
states, Madhya Pradesh does not have the geographical advantage. Therefore, the
state has to make its own policy.
There
are many challenges for the farmers loan waiver scheme to succeed. Due to
repeated announcement of loan waivers, banks are showing resistance to provide
loans to the farmers. Farmers are more concerned about recovering the cost of
their crops rather than loan waiver. This is possible only through adequate
increases in the minimum support price. The Indifference of new generations
towards agriculture will further intensify the crisis in the future. Experts
say a complete overhaul of the policy is needed to resurrect the farm sector
and just loan waivers will not do. (IPA
Service)
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