BHOPAL: Agriculture minister Kamal Patel has always tried to take the previous Congress government to task by calling the loan waiver as a scam. But in written reply to a question in the House on Monday he said the loan-waiving scheme was under government’s consideration.
In reply to a question of legislator Ravi Joshi, he admitted that two lakh farmers whose loans were declared non-performing asset were waived.
Likewise, the loans of nearly one lakh farmers were waived. According to information provided by Patel, in Khargon itself, the loans of more than one lakh farmers were waived.
Both the BJP and the Congress are using the issue of loan waiver for the ensuing by-elections.
The government has alleged Kamal Nath did not waive loans. Nath has also been accused of issuing fake loan-waiving certificates.
After Patel’s statement in the House, the Congress may make it an issue against the government.
Legislators Jaiwardhan Singh, Jitu Patwari and other law-makers asked questions about waiving loans.
Nevertheless, in reply to those questions, Patel never said loans were not waived.
The Congress legislators also wanted to know when the present government would waive loans.
They also wanted to know the statistics about the loan waiver. Patel also informed the House about the districts where loans were waived as well as about those farmers who got the benefit.