Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay announced a comprehensive waiver of cooperative farm loans, providing full relief for loans up to Rs 75,000 and partial waivers for higher amounts, benefiting over 1.38 lakh farmers with an additional financial commitment of Rs 953.06 crore.
Uttar Pradesh and Punjab have announced loan waivers for farmers, while Maharashtra has not despite Opposition pressure. Sanjeeb Mukherjee reports.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had announced his party would waive farm loans within 10 of coming to power in the state.
Beyond the macro data, there has been little enquiry into the profile of the indebted farmer households, says Shailesh Dobhal.
Kumaraswamy met representatives of farmers groups and progressive peasants to discuss the problems faced by them.
Kumaraswamy, who also holds the finance portfolio, said he has limited the loan amount to Rs 2 lakh, as it was 'not right' to waiver higher value crop loan.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a significant waiver of approximately Rs 48,000 crore in pending electricity dues for farmers, aiming to facilitate new agricultural power connections and support the state's agricultural sector.
The central government's exposure remains at over Rs 60,000 crore, the original amount proposed in Budget 2008-09.
The Congress on Friday promised that if the party is voted to power in Gujarat, where assembly elections are due by the yearend, it would waive farm loans of up to Rs 3 lakh and provide free electricity for 10 hours daily to farmers in the state.
BJP said if voted to power, it would bring out a 'white paper' on the financial health of the state under the Congress rule.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has ended its protest at the Chandigarh-Mohali border after receiving written assurances from the Punjab government. The government has pledged to convene a state Assembly session within a month to address issues concerning river waters, agriculture, and farmer loans, including resolutions against old water agreements and certain central bills.
A case has been registered against Maharashtra BJP minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and 53 others, including directors of a sugar mill, for allegedly obtaining loans of nearly Rs 9 crore in the names of farmers using forged documents. The complaint was filed by a sugarcane cultivator and member of the cooperative sugar mill, alleging that the loan amounts were never credited to the farmers' accounts and were instead siphoned off by sugar mill officials and bank staff. The case was registered based on a court directive following a complaint alleging irregularities that occurred in 2004.
Farmers under the Samyukta Kisan Morcha have initiated a week-long protest at the Chandigarh-Mohali border, demanding a minimum support price (MSP) based on the C2 plus 50 per cent formula, debt waivers, and opposing the proposed India-US trade deal, Electricity Amendment Bill, and Seed Bill. They also raised concerns about water depletion and sought resolutions based on riparian principles.
The waiver would cost Rs 18,000 crore to the state government.
If TVK MLAs and ministers are perceived as clean, or demonstrably cleaner than their predecessors, the credibility dividend will be enormous. The voter will feel rewarded, points out Ramesh Menon.
A total of 22,27,506 farmers have obtained loan of about Rs 10,736 crore from cooperative banks in the state.
The initiative would provide double the relief announced by the states of UP and Maharashtra, the Punjab CM said.
The chief minister said he has certain compulsions as a politician.
That apart, farmers will get loans for post-harvest storage of their produce at a subsidised interest rate of 7 per cent for six months.
Those who like to draw comfort from the fact that UP is the country's third-largest state in terms of the size of its economy should also note that its growth rate is one of the lowest, its per capita income is almost half of the national average and its poverty rate at 30 per cent places it at the twentieth rank among all the states, says A K Bhattacharya.
Here are the main factors that impact the November 23 elections in the state.
Banks may become more cautious in extending loans, as more and more farmers may take loans, relying on the assurance that a debt relief commission will back them in the event of default.
Police on Friday used tear gas to disperse Haryana farmers heading towards Khanauri on Punjab's border with the state where farmers, mostly from Punjab, have been camping since last week after their 'Delhi Chalo' march was halted by security forces.
In his short speeches at various places, Gandhi assailed Modi over demonetisation and a host of other issues.
With the farmers' protest against the three new laws and in support of legalising the minimum support price (MSP) going strong, state governments have announced a slew of measures in their annual Budgets to placate farmers. The Centre kicked things off in the Union Budget by assuring farmers that the MSP would continue and coming out with a report card to demonstrate its commitment. However, these efforts don't seem to have yielded tangible results. In their respective Budgets, states chose to go a step further by announcing a variety of measures.
The Congress said that a chief minister "has to be always happy".
The sops sanctioned by J Jayalalithaa on her first day in office could cost the exchequer up to Rs 8,000 crore annually.
The party's research department team, which Rajya Sabha member M V Rajeev Gowda heads, has sifted through the suggestions received in the last five months, and the manifesto is slated to be released later this month, reports Archis Mohan.
Land attachment and auction is being undertaken by banks that are controlled by the RBI, Gehlot said, urging the Centre to waive farmers' loans.
Ayyakannu, who is also president of the National South Indian Rivers Inter-Linking Farmers Association, said the decision to contest the polls from Uttar Pradesh was to urge the Bharatiya Janata Party to include in their manifesto that their demands, including "profitable prices for farm produce," would be fulfilled.
A panel of Union ministers held a fourth round of talks with farmer leaders in Chandigarh on Sunday over their demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP, as thousands of protesting farmers camped at the Punjab-Haryana border.
The government should set up agricultural co-operatives in every cluster of villages and in respective districts on a war-footing within a time limit. We should involve the services of our military personnel who retire at a young age with several years of working life still left in them and would be happy to contribute to nation-building, recommends Atul Gupta.
'We forecast real GDP growth to moderate to 6.7 per cent in the year ending March 2018.' 'However, as disruption fades, we expect to see a rebound in real GDP growth to 7.5 per cent in the next fiscal year.'
Modi, while speaking at a poll rally in Gujarat on Sunday, had sought to link the dinner meeting hosted by Aiyar for Pakistani dignitaries and attended by Manmohan Singh, among others, with the ongoing assembly polls and a conspiracy against the BJP.
The BJP's manifesto for UP elections promised many things. But, given the state's precarious financial position, fulfilling these promises is likely to prove tricky, says Ishan Bakshi.
The manifesto was unveiled by Jayalalithaa at a public rally, in a departure from usual practice of release at party headquarters in Chennai.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a blistering attack on Narendra Modi, slamming him for his roots in the Rashtriya Syawamsevak Sangh "whose ideology killed Mahatma Gandhi" and debunking his claims of development in Gujarat.
Chouhan met some farmer leaders on Saturday, but failed to reach a compromise.
If not for Palaniswami, it is hard to guess if the AIADMK would have been able to garner 33.3 per cent vote share as against the DMK's 37.7 per cent. AIADMK won 66 seats, its allies Pattali Makkal Katchi and Bharatiya Janata Party five and four seats respectively and proved yet again that the western region was its fortress.
Why does Punjab's CM find it hard to fulfill poll promises?
