By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala legislator P.C. Thomas will move a privilege notice against central Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for the changes made in the farm loan waiver scheme after it was announced in the budget.
“In the budget speech, Chidambaram had said that short-term loans would be waived for all farmers with land holdings up to five acres, but the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines say that farmers whose loan amount exceeds Rs.100,000 will not get the benefit. Likewise, for long-term loans, all loans taken before March 31, 1997, would stand excluded,” Thomas told reporters here Sunday.
He said that the RBI governor also will come under the privilege notice because the central bank has asked all banks to prepare a list of farmers based on the new set of its guidelines.
“The privilege notice will be submitted to the Lok Sabha speaker tomorrow (Monday),” said Thomas, whose party Kerala Congress (Joseph) is an ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
He also added that if the new guidelines are followed, close to 60 percent of the farmers in Kerala will stand excluded from the scheme.