BHUBANESWAR: With elections less than a year, farm loan waiver has emerged as a major issue before the political parties as the agriculture sector passes through a distress condition. Congress has led the way by announcing that it will waive loans of farmers if the party is voted to power in 2019 elections. President of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik made the announcement keeping in view the farmers’ demand across the State against the backdrop of a series of farmers’ suicide cases.
On the other hand, BJP has also demanded farm loan waiver in Odisha as several other States have done so.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is yet to take a decision on the issue though he has said several times that the State Government is examining how to proceed with the matter.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 18, the Chief Minister demanded that there should be a national policy on loan waiver. “In order to relieve farmers of the agrarian distress, we should have a national policy on farm loan waiver. The State Government would be willing to support any initiative taken by the Central Government in this direction,” the letter said.
Naveen has also suggested setting up of a Credit Guarantee Trust for Agriculture (CGTA) on the lines of the Credit Guarantee Trust for Small and Medium Enterprises (CGTSME). “Through this, collateral-free agricultural loans upto Rs 50 lakh and collateral-free crop loans upto `2 lakh are offered, backed only by the guarantee of CGTA,” he said.
Official sources said it will be difficult to implement farm loan waiver as it will put a burden of `20,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore on the state exchequer. Though farm waiver has now become necessary for political reasons, the problem is how to arrange the huge fund.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab have already implemented farm loan waiver. As part of poll promise, Rajasthan, which is going to polls later this year, recently announced a waiver for small and marginal farmers.
The Odisha Government is now under pressure as Navnirman Krushak Sangathan (NKS) has emerged as a major non-political farmers’ body and has been raising farmers’ issues during the last four years. The demand of the NKS is “Price, Pension and Prestige” to farmers.