Waive farmers' debts, demands Rajnath

Bhopal, Feb 20: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh demanded that the Centre's Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime should waive farmers' debts in the 2008-09 Budget. “The Centre's anti-peasant policies are forcing ryots to commit suicide. If the BJP comes to power at the Centre, it will waive cultivators' debts and further strengthen agriculture,” he claimed in a roughly half-hour-long speech during a Kisan Mahapanchayat at Jamboori Maidan on Wednesday.

Claiming that Atal Bihari Vajpayee's premiership witnessed initiation of several schemes for farmers, Singh alleged that the schemes were terminated in UPA rule. “Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram himself praised the Agricultural Income Insurance Scheme implemented during National Democratic Alliance tenure. He spoke of implementing an amended version of the scheme but that has not been done thus far,” he added. Advocating loans to the farmers at four percent interest rate, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh here Wednesday said that the government should take care of the farmers because the economy of the country would improve only if the farmers had enough money.

The BJP leader said that if the farming community of the country was weak, the agriculture production would also decline and the economy of the country would be in despair. “Had the successive governments taken care of farmers in 60 years of independence, they would have been much better off. “Several steps were taken for the betterment of the farming community during my tenure as Agriculture minister and many more were in the pipeline but by the time they could be implemented, the tenure of the government was over”, he said. Rajnath demanded that the Centre should start crop insurance scheme to provide strength to the farmers adding that the farmers were committing suicide in several parts of the country only due to the negligent attitude of the government. The BJP president, however, lauded the efforts of Madhya Pradesh government towards welfare of farming community.