'Centre must reimburse farm loan waived amount'

Bangalore, May 4: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa today urged the Centre to come to the rescue of the State Government by reimbursing the Rs 2,300 crore additional burden, that has fallen on the State following waiver of farm loans and loans extended to the farming community at four per cent interest rate.

He said that to free the farmers from the clutches of money lenders, the State Government had taken a historic decision to waive off a portion of loan availed from cooperative institutions. ''The Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should come forward to bear this additional burden,'' he added.

He was speaking to newspersons here after addressing a two-day seminar on '11th Five Year Plan of Karnataka-Perspective', jointly organised by the Karnatakna State Planning Board and Institute for Social and Economic Change.

Mr Yediyurappa said he would prefer to lead an all-party delegation to New Delhi and meet both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in this regard.

He urged the Union Government to follow the State and bring down the interest rate for farm loans to four per cent. ''This would help in improving the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in agriculture.'' Earlier delivering his address at the seminar, Mr Yediyurappa said the visible regional disparity was a major concern in the development of the State, in which over 114 taluks were identified as most backward by the High-Power Committee on Redressal of Regional Imbalances, under the Chairmanship of Dr D M Nanjundappa.

The JD (S)-BJP coalition Government had decided to tackle the regional disparity and provided a sum of Rs 1,571 crore during 2007-08 on the basis of a Special Development Plan.

He said the plan outlay proposed in the 11th plan for Karnataka was of the order of Rs 96,700 crore, an increase of 122 per cent over the previous plan outlay.

Recognising the importance of the garment sector, the State Government proposed to announce a 'Garment Policy' and provide necessary funds during the 11th plan. The State Government had also decided to develop a permanent ''Trade Fair Park'' near the upcoming international airport here, he added.

UNI