BHOPAL: Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath on Tuesday said the Madhya Pradesh government's "confession" in the Legislative Assembly that 26.95 lakh farmers were benefited from the previous Congress-led dispensation's farm loan waiver scheme has exposed "lies" being spread by the ruling BJP.
Nath, who heads the state Congress unit, also demanded apologies of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia who joined the BJP in March this year, for accusing the ersthwile Congress government of not waiving farm loan of farmers.
"The lies have been exposed by the state government's (written) reply in the state Assembly on Monday in which the state government has accepted that the farm loan worth Rs 11,600 crore of 26.95 lakh farmers across 51 districts was waived in two phases during previous Congress regime," Nath said in a statement.
Citing the reply, the former chief minister, whose government collapsed in March this year following resignations by more than 20 MLAs of Congress, said this "confession of the state government has exposed the lies of Chouhan and the BJP".
This truth has been accepted by the Agriculture Minister in the House, he stated.
He also attacked the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government over its stand on the loan waiver scheme.
"The government had said it would review the loan waiver scheme. The scheme was prepared after due consideration and there is no scope for review. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government is not ready to disclose the timeline for this review. This shows that the government has no intention to waive loans of farmers," Nath said.
Nath also said the then government headed by him was in the process of sanctioning to waive crop loans of 5.90 lakh additional farmers.
He alleged farmers in MP were forced to take drastic steps like suicide due to "lies" being spread by the BJP.
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Hitting back, the BJP said the Congress failed to keep its loan waiver promise which was anoounced by Rahul Gandhi during campaigning for the 2018 Assembly elections.
"Rahul Gandhi had announced that crop loans will be waived within 10 days if Congress forms government in MP. However, there were no details of the scheme. The Congress had restricted the loan waiver only up to Rs 2 lakh in its manifesto for the 2018 Assembly polls," BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said.
He accused the Congress of frequently changing its stand on the loan waiver issue.
"Several riders were added (for the loan waiver eligibility) after the Congress came to power, which is a matter of investigation," Agrawal said.