Taking pride in being able to fulfil its promise, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his party had done its job of waiving farm loans in the three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan it had wrested from the BJP.
“It’s done! Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh have waived farm loans. We asked for 10 days. We did it in 2,” Gandhi tweeted.
Following the suit after Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh waived farm loans, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday announced waiver of short-term loans taken by farmers from cooperative banks and loans of up to Rs 2 lakh from other banks. The waiver would cost Rs 8,000 crore to the state government.
Ashok Gehlot told reporters the scheme will apply to farmers in debt till November 30.
The Congress in its poll manifesto had promised to waive the loan of farmers if it comes to power in the state.
The newly-formed Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had announced farm loan waivers on Monday.
Immediately after taking over as the new Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath waived loans of farmers to the tune of Rs 2 lakh each, as on March 31, 2018, taken from nationalised and the cooperative banks.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhagel, who too took charge on Monday, followed suit and announced his government will waive farm loans worth Rs 6,100 crore of around 1.66 million farmers.
In the run-up to the state assembly elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had promised farm loan waivers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan within 10 days of the Congress coming to power.
Taking a jibe at the BJP government, Gandhi earlier on Wednesday said, “The Congress party has managed to wake the CMs of Assam and Gujarat from their deep slumber. PM is still asleep. We will wake him up too”.
Read | Woke up CMs of Assam, Gujarat, will wake up PM Modi too: Rahul Gandhi on farm loan waiver
Assam government on Tuesday approved farm loan waiver to the tune of Rs 600 crore which will benefit around eight lakh farmers of the state.
The Vijay Rupani-led BJP government in Gujarat Tuesday announced a complete waiver of Rs 650 crore in unpaid electricity bills, under its one-time settlement scheme for over 6 lakh people living in rural parts of the state.