Loan waiver scheme helps UP farmers

Jangal Dhusar (Uttar Pradesh), Apr 14 (ANI): Farmers in Uttar Pradesh are enjoying the benefits of loan waiver scheme announced by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Congress had announced the 600 billion rupees package in the budget and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that banks would be compensated as and when loans became due.

Farmers in state's Jangal Dhusar village said that the lack of burden of loan repayment has made their lives much easier as all the overdues are covered through government revenue.The loan waiver for the poor farmers is really beneficial. Earlier we used to toil in our fields for our household. Now after this scheme, I used the money saved for arranging marriage of my daughter," said Parasnath Bhoyi, a farmer.

Similar sentiments were echoed by other farmers.

"Earlier all our money used to get exhausted in paying interests to the money lender. Now, the same money is being used to educate our children. We are doing very well now," said Nisha Devi, another farmer.

Agriculture in India continues to be highly labour intensive and supports nearly 60 percent of the one billion-plus population. However, it constitutes only 20 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By Pavan Kumar Shah (ANI)