Congress to waive off farm loans in 5 hrs of forming Govt in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: After the historic victory of the Indian National Congress (INC) in three States, the party promised to waive off farm loans in Odisha within hours of coming to power in Odisha.

The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Niranjan Patnaik announced it on a microblogging site Twitter here today.

Congress will waive off farm loans within 5 hours of forming govt. in Odisha. It’s our solemn promise to our annadatas. pic.twitter.com/SB01AyhOHE

— Niranjan Patnaik (@NPatnaikOdisha) December 20, 2018

“BJD is in govt. in Odisha since last 18 years, they never thought about the welfare of our farmers. The Congress govts. in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan took just two days to waive off farm loans. Look at the contrast,” he tweeted.

“For the last 18 years, BJD did nothing for our annadatas. Now the party is getting stomachache when Congress govt. in Chhattisgarh announced bonus on MSP. The BJD is exposing it’s anti-farmer face to the people of Odisha,” he wrote on Twitter.

Notably, the State unit of Congress in its recent manifesto had promised the farmers to waive off the crop loans if the party forms the government in Odisha.

The waiving of farm loans was the key point in the election manifesto through which the Congress fought the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. Even keeping its promise, Chief Minister Kamal Nath waived off the short-term loans of farmers after forming the government in Madhya Pradesh.

After Madhya Pradesh, the Congress governments in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan also announced farm loan waiver after the party came to power in the recent assembly polls.

In view of the BJP’s debacle in recent assembly polls in five States, Odisha unit of the saffron party also promised the farmers to waive off crop loans if it was voted to power in the State.

Reacting to the poll manifestoes of the opposition parties, the State Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said that Odisha is not in the farm loan waiver race like other States.

The Centre should bring a policy to resolve farmers’ issues first. However, the State government is considering all aspects before moving for waiving off farm loans, he said.