From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Jun 21: With as many as 139 of the 176 taluks along with 160 taluks of Karnataka facing drought conditions and farmers in the State facing severe distress this year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has finally decided to offer the loan waiver relief to as many as 22,27,500 farmers to the tune of Rs 8,165 crore.

The Chief Minister, in his reply to the financial appropriation bill for the year 2017-18 in the State Legislative Assembly, said the loan waiver will be applicable to farmers who had taken crop loans from cooperative institutions up to an amount of Rs 50,000 as on June 20.

Siddaramaiah made it a point to reiterate his demand to the BJP Government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show its concern for farmers by waiving off crop loans availed by farmers from all the commercial banks.

With this announcement of loan waiver to farmers, Karnataka becomes the fourth State to join the States to offer the benefit of farm loan waivers after Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab. While UP is ruled by BJP, Maharashtra has a BJP-Shiv Sena coalition rule while Punjab is ruled by Congress party.

It may be recalled that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had during his recent visit to Karnataka had asked the Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to help the farmers in distress due to consecutive drought conditions.

Siddaramaiah, who has been under pressure for granting the benefit of loan waiver in this year’s budget and subsequently, had continuously resisted the move on the ground that the BJP government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come to the rescue of farmers facing drought conditions and committing suicides in several states, including many ruled by the BJP.

When Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely refused to heed the demand and contended that it was the responsibility of the State Governments, Siddaramaiah had demanded that the Centre should at least bear 50 per cent of the burden of loan waiver as bulk of the farmers had availed loans from commercial banks with a small section of farmers had borrowed from the cooperative banks. However, the Centre was unmoved and refused to help the States or the farmers by offering loan waivers.

With the onset of monsoon and farmers getting ready for agricultural operations, the Chief Minister has now decided to announce the loan waiver to the tune of Rs 8, 165 crore. Incidentally, the ruling Congress party seems to be banking on securing the support of farmers and agricultural labourers in next year’s assembly elections by announcing the loan waiver sops closer to the polls.

He said the farmers had availed Rs 10,736 crore short term crop loans from the cooperative sector, of which the State Government has waived loans to the tune of Rs 8, 165 crore loans up to Rs 50,000 outstanding till June 20 to benefit 22,27,500 farmers.

Siddaramaiah took pains to explain why the Government was rushing to the rescue of farmers. ``This government believes in providing a better deal to farmers and the downtrodden sections as part of its policy of ensuring equitable distribution and better living conditions to all,’’ he said emphasising that all the policies and programmes of the government were guided by this principle.

The Chief Minister said the government had made special efforts to provide relief to the farmers hit by scarcity conditions with supply of drinking water and fodder to cattle receiving priority. Under the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee scheme, as many as 9.14 crore man days of jobs had been created. Crop insurance compensation of Rs 1,685 crore had been directly credited to the bank accounts of farmers, he said.

Karnataka has been supplying milk to 1.2 crore children five days a week under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme and distributing rice at 7 kg per person to 1.10 crore BPL card holders. The subsidy provided to the milk supplying farmers had benefitted 8.5 lac farm families.

The appropriation bills were later passed by the State Assembly.