Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar today hit out at the Congress and NCP for stalling the proceedings of the state legislature over the demand for complete loan waiver for farmers.
"The party (Congress) which rules neighbouring Karnataka had endorsed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' stand that agriculture infrastructure needs to be strengthened to empower farmers before considering the loan waiver," he told reporters in a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The senior BJP leader said the Karnataka CM who belongs to Congress is echoing Fadnavis on the issue.
"Neighbouring Karnataka has a Congress chief minister and he too is saying that loan waiver is not the only option, which has been stressed by Fadnavis. We have to focus first on infrastructure development and empowerment of farmers. Congress should clear its stand on why the party has different views in Maharashtra and Karnataka," the minister said.
The functioning of the state legislature was crippled today after the Congress and NCP, joined by the Shiv Sena members, created a din in both Houses, leading to their adjournment for the day.
Mungantiwar alleged the Opposition raised the demand for the loan waiver with an ulterior motive as they want their district co-operative banks benefited through the measure, and not for the sake of farmers as being projected.
"Opposition leaders are unnecessarily politicising the issue. They want their cooperative banks to benefit from loan waiver, hence their demand is not genuine," he said.
Taking on the opposition, the BJP leader said they should not forget that if the government can implement the Seventh Pay Commission, they have no issues in implementing loan waiver scheme for farmers.
"The opposition parties are misleading people on the issue by projecting themselves as pro-farmer. During 2001 to 2014, then Congress government had allocated Rs 4,600 crore for farmers under various schemes.
"However, in the last two years, our government has given away Rs 4,200 crore to farmers through various schemes. It shows this is the government that really works for farmers," Mungantiwar said.
He clarified that BJP has not rejected the demand for the loan waiver per se, but is awaiting an "appropriate time".
"The Opposition asks us why the loan waiver cannot be announced in Maharashtra when the same is part of the BJP's poll promise in Uttar Pradesh. I want to tell them that we are not opposed to the demand in principle. Our manifesto also mentions it.
"The manifesto is for five years. We are also working to strengthen infrastructure in agriculture sector and to empower farmers. Only after that goal is achieved, we can consider the loan waiver as it will truly benefit farmers," Mungantiwar said.
The minister said the government was deliberating on
how and when the loan waiver can be granted.
"Our government is of the view that not a single farmer should commit suicide and we don't want to go into details of whether the suicide figures (of farmers) have gone up in the last two years or not," Mungantiwar said.
The Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde (NCP) today claimed in Upper House that 9000 farmers have ended their lives in Maharashtra in the last two years due to indebtedness.
On the steps taken by the state government in the last two years, the minister said the government has increased the budgetary allocations for infrastructure development for providing electricity connections as well as in areas like agriculture technology and innovations, and improved water availability.
"It is more than what the previous Congress-NCP government had done. We have focused on micro irrigation and micro management of agriculture funds. Had the previous government worked for the upliftment of farmers, they wouldn't have been facing such distress now," he said.
The minister said instead of disrupting the Budget session proceedings, the Opposition can discuss ways which will benefit the farmers.
He said the state government was open for debate on the issue.
"The previous loan waiver in 2007-08 had not yielded results and had financially helped the district banks. The Congress and the NCP owe an explanation on why farmers suicides are continuing even after that loan waiver," he said.
