Sushil Modi demands loan waiver of 39 lakh farmers in Bihar

Patna, Jun 22: Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today urged the Bihar government to waive loan of Rs 21,615 crore of 39 lakh distressed farmers in the state. Modi also suggested the government to additionally provide an interest-free loan to boost the farming sector.

"The Bihar farmers are in distress as they are not getting remunerative prices for (their) produce and keeping it in mind, the state government should waive loan of Rs 21,615 crore of 39 lakh farmers," he said in a statement.

"If the farmers can get loan waiver in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka, then how come their brethren be left in Bihar as the farming sector here too has been in distress," Modi said. The senior BJP leader further asked the state government to take cue from Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab and provide interest-free loan to the farmers in Bihar.

Modi hit out at the "apathetic attitude" of the Grand Alliance government to pull out the farmers from distress and alleged that a paltry 18 tonnes paddy had been procured from the farmers by the state agencies against cumulative production of 90 lakh tonnes in the season gone by.

The farmers had to sell their produce at throw away prices to raise money to meet family needs and sowing next crop, he said. He also alleged that the much-vaunted Agriculture Road Map (2012-17) had failed on all parameters even as the schemes for providing subsidies on diesel and purchase of farm tools by farmers had "failed disastrously."

PTI