UP govt's farm loan waiver 'unfulfilled promise': Congress

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday dubbed the UP government's decision to waive farm loans as an "unfulfilled promise" and said time has come for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to fulfil their promises to farmers in toto. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the farmers cannot stand on their feet "with half truth but with full loan waiver". He said there total loans of Rs 92,241 crore on farmers of Uttar Pradesh and government has only partially waived the crop loans of Rs 36,000 crore leaving them high and dry. He said that the Rs 56,241 crore worth of term loans on farmers of the state remain and the BJP has only "befooled" the farmers by announcing a populist measure that will not help them come out of distress. "The hopes of farmers of Uttar Pradesh have been dashed with the decision of UP cabinet. The Yogi government has decided to waive only Rs 36,000 crore of loans that will not make the farmers debt-free or provide relief to them. "While farm loan waiver is the right decision, it is half truth as it will neither help free the farmers of debt nor provide them a new lease of life. Time has come for the Prime Minister and UP Chief Minister to fulfil their promise," he told reporters. Surjewala said the BJP manifesto did not distinguish between crop loan and term loans adding "Through this half truth, farmers will not come out of the vicious debt cycle". He said that 79.45 per cent of farmers in Uttar Pradesh were marginal while 13.01 per cent farmers were small and they had great hopes of getting relief from the new BJP government. He also hoped that the Yogi Adityanath-led government will also provide relief to sugar growers, by paying pending dues of Rs 6,561 crore for 2016-17, Rs 599 crore for 2015-16 and Rs 153 crore for 2014-15. The Congress leader said there were 2.33 crore farmers in UP and 64.14 lakh had pending loan of Rs 86,241 crore from commercial banks and Rs 6,000 crore from cooperative banks. He said marginal farmers had an average land holding of 0.44 hectare and small farmers had average land holding of 1.43 hectare, all of whom were hoping for an end to their misery. He also claimed the BJP has waived loans worth Rs 1.4 lakh crores of big corporate houses and industrialists.