Hooda: BJP-JJP should stop collecting interest on crop loans from farmers

Chandigarh: Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has expressed deep condolences on the train accident in Odisha. He paid tribute to the deceased and wished for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Hooda urged the government to provide all possible help to the victims and demanded compensation to the families at the earliest. Along with this, he said a high-level inquiry is needed into the matter so that such incidents can be avoided in future.

Answering questions from media persons in Chandigarh, he strongly objected to co-operative banks charging interest on crop loans from the farmers. Hooda said that during the Congress tenure, interest was reduced to zero while giving relief to farmers on crop loans. “The burden on the farmers was borne by the government itself and no interest was charged from the farmers, but the present government did not renew this scheme of interest relief. Because of this, banks started collecting interest from the farmers,” he said.

Hooda said that the BJP-JJP government should renew the scheme implemented by the Congress without delay. “The farmers, from whom interest has been recovered so far, should be refunded and it should be ensured that such recovery will not happen to any farmer in future,” he said.

He said that the BJP-JJP government has not taken a single decision in the interest of the farmers till date. “Sunflower farmers are waiting for MSP, but the government is talking of Bhavantar. Farmers are facing a loss of Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500 per quintal. The government is running away from its responsibility of giving MSP to the farmers. One by one, crops with MSP are also being linked to such Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana, which does not benefit the farmers,” he said.

Hooda said that the government is misleading the farmers even regarding the compensation. “Farmers have been waiting for compensation for the last several seasons. The government starts patting itself on the back by distributing compensation only on paper. 17 lakh acres of crops were damaged due to rains in the last few days but the government registered damage in hardly 3 lakh acres,” he added.

“However, there is big doubt on this figure as well, because thousands of farmers are saying that they got very less compensation, compared to the damage and countless farmers were completely deprived of it,” he said.

Hooda stated that the government is misleading the farmers and the entire Haryana on the issue of SYL too.