MP Govt Makes U-turn On Data On Farm Loan Waiver by Cong, Minister Says Officers Offered Wrong Info

A day after Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh tabled data in the state Assembly on farm loan waiver by previous Congress government, Urban Administration and Development (UAD) Minister Bhupendra Singh clarified that officers had submitted erroneous information and that only a nominal amount was waived off.

During the one-day monsoon session of Assembly on Monday, Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel had submitted a written reply stating that farm loans amounting to Rs 11,600 crore of 26.95 lakh farmers were waived off by the previous state government. This was contradictory to BJP’s earlier stance that Kamal Nath government had only offered nominal waivers of few thousands and betrayed the farmers.

Responding to the accusation, the Congress party had launched a full-fledged attack on the ruling BJP accusing the party of lying through their teeth.

However, on Wednesday, speaking to media in Bhopal on reply submitted by his ministerial colleague, the UAD minister said that the loan waiver wasn’t done and officers had offered wrong information. The minister said only jugglery of figures was done (by the Congress party) and the burden was put on the banks and this is why the present government had to offer Rs 800 crore to these banks.

A probe will be carried out and the guilty officer will be punished, he added. His cabinet colleague and the Home Minister Narottam Mishra affirmed Singh’s statement saying farm loans upto Rs 2,000-4,000 were written off. He asked the media to neither believe the BJP nor Congress and urged them to find farmers who got loan waiver upto Rs 1 lakh to 2 lakh as announced by ex-AICC president Rahul Gandhi.

In the run up to Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls in year 2018, Gandhi had announced that after coming to power, the Congress within ten days will waive off farm loans upto Rs 2 lakh.

Former PR minister PC Sharma, meanwhile, slammed the ruling BJP. The BJP is lying as they offered information in assembly that Rs 11,600 crore farm loans were waived off and later the chief minister said that only Rs 6,000 crore loans were written off. The truth is that it was the Congress party which had helped the farmers, said Sharma.