No loan waiver: Debt-ridden farmers feel isolated
1 Feb 2018 6:12 PM GMT
New Delhi: Terming it an ambiguous budget, farmers of Delhi-NCR claimed no roadmap to address their issues. The farmers said that while the government has announced to increase minimum support price (MSP) one-and-half times but has not unveiled any detailed plan for this. The farmers, who were expecting loan waiver announcement, expressed their disappointment as the Budget made no provision in this regard.
Dushyant Naagar, a Greater Noida-based farmer said that this ailing strata was expecting some relief but the outcome is almost zero. The government, which had earlier promised to take measures by developing rural mandis' infrastructure and market linking, has not taken a single step.
"Earlier it was expecting to agriculture-friendly infrastructure by making mandis hi-tech, improving connectivity of them from villages, setting up mandis in rural pockets to ensure reach of farmers in their close proximity and linking markets for more options to sell the product but the government has yet to pay heed toward this," he said.
"In addition to this, the budget was supposed to chalk out a plan to buy and sell crops as well as final products but there was no provision. The Finance Minister announced increased MSP but it will go down the drain if there is a lack of system for purchase and sell. Here, instead of making announcement to score brownie points, the government should emphasise on a proper system," added Naagar.
Another farmer from Western UP, Ramveer Pradhan, said that the government has failed to implement Kisan Fasal Bima Yojana resulting in increasing number of suicides. The farmer class was hopeful of the budget but failed to console. "The country witnesses dozens of suicide of farmers everyday due to increasing debt hence immediate attention should be given to minimise debt. Here implementation of Kisan Fasal Bima Yojana besides announcement of loan waiver was much anticipated but the government ignored then in its last Budget too. This is really very unfortunate as a society which feeds the entire country has been cornered," said Pradhan.
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