Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh may have claimed to waive farmers’ loans amounting to Rs 36,000 crores, however, what the farmers have received so far are loan waiver certificates worth Rs 10 and Rs 215.
At an event organised at Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh, farmers were shocked to receive loan waiver certificates with amounts as low as Rs 10. The event was attended by state Minister for Labour and Employment Exchanges, Manohar Lal (Mannu Kori).
Distressed farmers, who have debts amounting to Rs 50,000, were handed certificates worth Rs 10 or 20. Now, they are clueless over how to get the rest of the amount waived.
On receiving complaints regarding these faulty loan waiver certificates of Rs 10 and Rs 20, Mannu Kori said, “It might be due to some misprint in the certificate, the matter will be investigated and discrepancies will be corrected.”
The farmers are, however, disgruntled with the administration and expressed their displeasure over the distribution of these certificates and said that it was nothing less than a joke on their plight.
Munni Lal, a farmer from Umri village in Hamirpur, approached the Minister of State and while showing his bank passbook complained that he had debt of around Rs 50,000 and received certificate of Rs 215. Another farmer, Babulal, complained of receiving a loan waiver certificate of Rs 28,000 while he had a loan of Rs 50,000.
Munni Lal's certificate worth Rs 215.
Around 12,460 farmers, just from the Hamirpur district, are supposed to get farm loan waivers in the first phase of the scheme.
On Monday, MoS Mannu Kori distributed the certificates of farm loan waiver to 5,000 farmers. Out of 45 farmers who were called on stage to receive the certificates, many complained of getting these low-value certificates.
This is not the first time when loan waiver certificates of such low denominations were handed to the farmers. On September 8, similar incidents were reported from Barabanki district, where certificates were distributed to 5,000 farmers. Farmers in Barabanki too complained of receiving waiver certificates of Rs 12 and 24.
Going by the Yogi government's decision, small and marginal farmers in Uttar Pradesh were to get up to Rs 1 lakh for their losses. There are about 2.15 crore farmers in UP, whose loans amounting to Rs 30,729 crores, are supposed to be waived.
The Rs 30,729 crore debt waiver would benefit farmers who had suffered losses due to drought, flood etc in Uttar Pradesh. Other farmers, whose loans were declared Non-Performing Assets by the banks and are beyond recovery, will also be waived. This would amount to another Rs 5,630 crores, in addition to the Rs 30,729 crore.
Speaking to News18, Samajwadi Party MLC, Sunil Singh ‘Sajan’ said, “Issuing waiver certificates of Rs 10 is the worst kind of joke that the government could have done with our farmers. Already distressed, these farmers will teach the government a good lesson in next elections for such a shameful act.”
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