The Congress and NCP in the state assembly today turned aggressive over farmers' loan waiver issue and criticised the BJP led state government of being "calculative" when it comes to implementation of the scheme.
The Congress and NCP even took potshots at the Shiv Sena on the issue of loan waiver and asked the party to contribute to the loan waiver by opening coffers of the cash rich Mumbai civic body.
"The Sena must then open up the cash-rich coffers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to shore up loan finances," the NCP leaders suggested in a fresh dig at the saffron allies.
"First, Sena should join hands with us and we (Congress and NCP) together can reach the magic mark of 145 MLAs in the house (of 288).
"The Sena controlled corporation (BMC) has Rs 60,000 crore in fixed deposits which can be used to give a complete loan waiver to the farmers," said former deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar while speaking on the loan waiver issue.
Pawar even hit out at the BJP-Sena combine for poor implementation of the loan scheme.
"The Maharashtra government is only begging before the centre all the time for financial assistance. If banks can waive loans worth thousands of crores for industrialists, why is it that central banks and experts only questions loan waiver for farmers," Pawar said.
The Congress, too, alleged that BJP government was only taking credit for a farm loan waiver, whose foundation was laid by the Opposition during the farmers' agitation.
"The government has fooled the farmers by asking them to fill the forms while many are yet to get any assistance as promised.
"When the UPA government declared the loan waiver of Rs 78,000 crore, the farmers were not asked to fill any forms either physically or online. This is just a sham," said Congress leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.
Pawar pointed out that government resolutions have omitted not only members from local bodies from the benefit of the waiver, but even army men.
"You have kept out Zilla Parishad, Municipal Corporation members from waiver benefit, which we can understand. But, the government has not even extended the facility to jawans because they do not fit into grade four. This is injustice," said Pawar.
Vikhe Patil said, "The state government should waive the loan of a bank account and rather than one loan amount of a family. It means, if more than one person has sought crop loan-then only one will benefit from it. This will not be a proper relief to the farmers."
"The state government has worked out an amount of Rs 34,022 crore for loan waiver. Now, it says it needs information in an online format. This puts the earlier figure in doubt.
"Can anyone from the state government explain how it reached the figure of Rs 34,022 crore," Vikhe Patil asked.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
