By IANS
Nagpur : A marathon nine-hour debate on farm-loan waiver failed to yield either any new points or any concrete promise from the Maharashtra government in the winter session of the state legislative assembly here Thursday.
The debate, which began after a two-hour wrangle over the rule under which it should be held, ended with a tame opposition walk-out over Chief Minister Vilasrao Desmukh’s inability to make any specific announcement about waiver of loans to the distressed farmers in Vidarbha or across the state.
“We want it (loan waiver) as much as you do,” the chief minister said, pointing to the unequivocal support to the opposition demand from all ruling front members who participated in the day-long debate. “But the state government is unable to bear the entire loan waiver burden on its own,” he added.
“And why not take the central government’s help if they are ready to give it?” Deshmukh asked, noting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s inclination to offer “whatever more is necessary” and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s statement that farm loans need to be waived.
Deshmukh’s promise to take up with the Prime Minister during the Nov 27 meeting of chief ministers the issue of farm relief package (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala) did not mollify the opposition, which wanted nothing but a loan-waiver announcement.
Initiating the debate, Leader of Opposition Ramdas Kadam sought to know why does the state government, which has incurred a loan of Rs.1470 billion without the central government’s permission, now wait for the centre’s nod for waiving off a mere Rs.75 billion worth farm loan.
Demanding an inquiry into alleged corruption in the purchase of farm implements under the Prime Minister’s relief package, Kadam also suggested measures like repair of village tanks in paddy growing east Vidarbha districts and setting up of wineries in Gadchiroli district using the carbohydrate-rich ‘moha’ flowers as raw material.
The Opposition leader also demanded lifting of an “irrational” ban on the sale of ‘lakhodi dal’, a sturdy, protein-rich variety of pulses grown in central India and Bihar whose sale remains banned in Maharashtra since 1973 following detection of a kind of paralysis among villagers who consumed it exclusively during drought.
“The lifting of the ban would end the exploitation of farmers at the hands of unscrupulous traders, who clandestinely buy the lakhodi dal dirt cheap from them and mix its flour with that of the high priced gram pulse,” Kadam said.
Bharatiya Janata Party house leader Eknath Khadse reminded the ruling Democratic Front partners Congress and Nationalist Congress Party of their unfulfilled poll promises like remunerative price for cotton, free power to farms, crop insurance and rejuvenation of waste land.
Khadse, who was finance minister in the Shiv-Sena-BJP alliance government, launched a scathing attack on DF government for giving bank guarantee worth Rs.550 billion to sugar and cotton mills and granting huge waiver to individual factories and co-operatives while flinching from writing of loans of poor farmers.
Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde drew the government’s attention to neighbouring Gujarat that has achieved a GDP growth rate of 14 percent and agricultural growth of 6.5 percent, and asked for Special Economic Zones for farmers where processing units could be set up.