It's Done, Tweets Rahul After Rajasthan Becomes Third Congress State to Announce Farm Loan Waiver

New Delhi: After Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the Congress-led government in Rajasthan has announced a waiver of short-term loans taken by farmers from cooperative banks and loans of upto Rs 2 lakh from other banks.

The waiver would cost Rs 8,000 crore to the state government. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot told reporters the scheme will apply to farmers in debt till November 30.

The Congress, which won the recent Assembly elections, had promised in its manifesto to waive farm loans. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said that the Congress government would announce the farm loan waiver within 10 days of forming government.

Hailing the farm loan waiver, Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to announce that even though the Congress asked for 10 days, it was done in just two.

Echoing Rahul Gandhi's views, Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot said Congress walks the talk and it has delivered on the loan waiver promise.

Following close on the heels of loan waivers by the recently sworn-in Congress governments in MP and Chhattisgarh, the BJP government in Assam approved Rs 600 crore farm loan waiver, while the Vijay Rupani government in Gujarat announced a decision to waive electricity bills of connection holders in rural areas to the tune of Rs 650 crore.

Claiming that Congress had 'managed to awaken' chief ministers of Assam and Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday reiterated that he will not let Prime Minister Narendra Modi sleep until all farm loans are waived.

The Congress president said the Congress's recent win is the victory of the poor, the farmers, the youth, labour and small shopkeepers.

Immediately after taking oath as CM of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath cleared the farmers’ loan waiver file. The loans of farmers up to Rs 2 lakh will be waived off, the order stated, adding that loans extended by all the nationalised and cooperative banks would be covered in the announcement, the order further said.

Following suit, within hours of being sworn-in as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel too announced the farm loan waiver amounting to Rs 61 billion. The new government has also decided to raise minimum support price of paddy to Rs 2,500 per quintal.