‘1 done. 2 to go’: Rahul Gandhi on Kamal Nath waiving farm loans in MP
Earlier on Monday, Kamal Nath took the oath as Madhya Pradesh chief minister in the presence of top Congress and opposition leaders who flew to Bhopal from Jaipur where they had watched Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot take charge as Rajasthan chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively.
Newly sworn-in Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath Monday cleared loan waivers for farmers, as per the Congress promise in the assembly elections
In his first act after taking over, Nath signed the file for waiving farmers loans up to Rs 2 lakh.
An order issued by principal secretary, agriculture, Rajesh Rajora said, “The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to waive loans, up to Rs 2 lakh, of farmers who were found eligible, taken from nationalised and cooperative banks as short term crop loan as on March 31, 2018.”
“1 done, 2 to go,” Congress president Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet soon after Nath’s action. Farm loan waivers, within 10 days of taking over charge, was a key promise of the party in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where the party won the assembly polls too.
Earlier on Monday, Nath took the oath as chief minister in the presence of top Congress and opposition leaders who flew to Bhopal from Jaipur where they had watched Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot take charge as Rajasthan chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively.
Madhya Pradesh bureaucrats had prepared a note on farm loan waiver for the new chief minister to consider once he was sworn in, officials said on Friday. The bureaucrats had an informal meeting with the chief minister-designate on Thursday, following which they prepared a note offering suggestions on how farm loans can be waived — a key promise of the Congress during its campaign.
According to sources, chief secretary Basant Pratap Singh held a meeting with officers of the agriculture and finance department, and cooperatives to take stock of farm loans in the state. An official, who participated at the meeting, said 4.1 million farmers have an outstanding loan of Rs 56,377 crore. In addition to this, the non-performing assets (NPAs) farm loans are worth Rs 12,000 crore. The total budget size for 2018-19 was Rs 18,366 crore.
Gandhi had announced that farm loans of up to Rs 2 lakh will be waived within 10 days of the new government. Nath said this will be his top priority after taking over.
