Cong demands national farm loan waiver, minimum income scheme in Budget

As the countdown for the Union Budget 2020 has begun, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday hit out at the Narendra Modi government and accused it of trying to mislead people and said that the promise of doubling farmers' income has also turned out to be a "Jumla" (false promise). The Union Budget is scheduled to be presented on 1 February.

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday demanded the government to announce a national farm loan waiver and a minimum income scheme in the upcoming Union Budget, as well as spell out measures to ensure farmers' income doubles by 2022.

While addressing a press conference, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said the biggest promise of the BJP government was to double the agricultural income by 2022 but in the last four years nothing has happened so far. People want to know that till where the farmers income has reached."

The BJP came to power with the promise of giving 50 per cent profit on the cost of farm produce to farmers, he claimed

But, so far, farmers have been left at the mercy of their fate and "the government has been only trying to mislead them with false 'jumlas', Chavan alleged.

Targetting the Chief Economic Adviser and the Finance Minister, the Congress leader said, "How much income of farmers has increased in the last five years, as part of its promise of doubling their income by 2022."

While talking about the agricultural economy of the country, he said that the farmers are suffering committing suicides and the government is hiding data as the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report shown by the government are manipulated and everyone here knows farmers' condition. "

Chavan, a former chief minister of Maharashtra, said for farmers' income to double by 2022 the agriculture sector has to grow by at least 12 per cent compounded annually.

But, under the Modi government the agriculture sector has seen a growth of only 2.9 per cent in the last five years, he claimed, asking how this will double farmers' income.

He said this has created doubts over the government's claims of making India a USD 5-trillion economy by 2024, as the agriculture sector has a contribution of over 15.5 per cent in the country's GDP but it is growing slowly.

The Congress leader further said that we expect the current government to provide relief to the farmers in the upcoming budget and hope that there are no more suicides and the farmers are compensated for loss due to natural disasters.

Prithviraj Chavan said in the last budget of this government, they talked of creating 10,000 new farmer producer organisations but now nobody knows that how many of these have been made till now. For agriculture infrastructure fund they had announced for Rs 2000 crore fund but the government spent only Rs 10 crores.

He also said that the global community is also worried about the statistics provided by the central government on the economic parameters, including the GDP growth.

With inputs from PTI)