By IANS
Nagpur : Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has indicated that a waiver on farmers’ loans was on the cards, reiterating the state’s willingness to go along with the central government on the issue.
“We are waiting to see the central government’s policy in that regard in order to know our share of responsibility in the package,” the chief minister told reporters here Sunday, on eve of the state legislature’s winter session.
Pointing to Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s recent statement in Akola in Maharashtra’s crisis-ridden west Vidarbha region that nothing short of a loan waiver would mitigate the farmers’ distress, Deshmukh said the state would respond positively to any initiative the centre takes in that direction.
“In fact, the state government has already sent a set of recommendations for modifications in the farmers’ relief package in compliance with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s directive during a review meeting in Mumbai earlier this year,” said Deshmukh.
He also said that Pune University’s vice-chancellor Narendra Jadhav would soon tour western Vidarbha to study the impact of the Prime Minister’s July 2006 relief package and suggest ways to make it more effective.
Deshmukh had appealed to the members of parliament from the state earlier this month to follow up with the central government on loan waivers or any other larger relief as indicated by the Prime Minister and the agriculture minister.
He, however, left open the question whether the waiver would be restricted to western Vidarbha or cover the paddy-growing eastern Vidarbha also as demanded by farmers of that region or even other distressed regions of Maharashtra like Marathwada and Konkan.
Regarding the pending bill to repeal the Urban Land Ceiling Act, Deshmukh reiterated the government’s desire to have it passed in the winter session of the state’s legislative assembly, as release of central funds for Mumbai’s makeover depended on it.
He also hoped for an early transfer of Nagpur airport to the Maharashtra Airport Development Co in deference to civil aviation ministry’s undertaking to the Bombay High Court.
“A note has already been put up before the union cabinet (by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel) for its approval to the transfer,” he said.
The chief minister said the vexing issue of rehabilitating farmers in the vicinity of the airport would also be resolved during the session.
Hours before Deshmukh’s press briefing, the state’s opposition leader Ramdas Kadam told reporters that the opposition were boycotting the chief minister’s session-eve tea party to protest the government’s “casual approach” towards farmers’ woes and other burning issues bedevilling the state.