BENGALURU: The ambitious farm loan waiver will figure prominently in the JD(S)-Congress coalition government's Common Minimum Programme. The sub-committee on the CMP, in its final draft, has given the green signal for the waiver for all crop loans availed up to May 2018. The draft will now be discussed in the coordination committee meeting headed by Siddaramaiah on Sunday.
The sub-committee, that includes senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily, ministers D K Shivakumar, R V Deshpande, H D Revanna and Bandeppa Kashempur, has adopted a "balanced draft" for the CMP which also includes a decision to continue with the previous Congress government's flagship welfare programmes.
“We have chalked out a balanced programme based on manifestos of both parties to ensure smooth functioning of the government for the next five years. We have unanimously adopted a report including waiver for crop loans from all nationalised and cooperative banks till May 2018,” said Veerappa Moily. He, however, added that modalities of the waiver will be decided by the coordination committee. Friday's meeting was the third such ever since the coordination committee set up the sub-committee to draw up a Common Minimum Programme.
“We all emerged out of the meeting smiling and it must tell you that both parties are happy with the draft. No popular programmes will be cut short and the Chief Minister will ensure implementation of joint schemes,” Cooperation Minister Bandeppa Kashempur told the media after the meeting.