‘1 done. 2 to go’: Rahul Gandhi on Kamal Nath waiving farm loans in MP

Bhopal, Dec 17: Hours after taking oath as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath announced loan waiver for farmers.

Soon after the decision was taken, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and posted a message, "CM, Madhya Pradesh, waives farm loans. 1 done. 2 to go," suggesting that after MP, his party will do the same in the other two states where they came to power - Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Addressing the media, Kamal Nath said: "After joining this post (of Chief Minister), the first file I have signed is of farm loan waiver of Rs 2 lakh each, as I had promised to the farmers."

The order stated, "Madhya Pradesh Government has taken a decision to write off short-term crop loan of eligible farmers up to the limit of Rs two lakh, as on March 31, 2018, from nationalised and cooperative banks."

The move follows a promise by Congress president Rahul Gandhi during the poll campaign that if people of Madhya Pradesh voted for Congress, then they would implement farmers' loan waiver within 10 days of coming to power.

"Here Kamal Nath (MP Congress president) and Jyotiraditya Scindia (the state Congress poll campaign committee chairman) are sitting. The day the Congress comes to power in MP, count 10 days, I say with guarantee that farmer loans will be waived within 10 days. It won't take even the eleventh day," Gandhi had said at the rally.

Later, this announcement was included in the Congress manifesto, titled Vachan Patra'.

The Congress president had reiterated the farm loan waiver promise repeatedly during the campaigning for the November 28 assembly elections.