Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday witnessed an uproar over the issue of farm loan waiver, following which the House was adjourned for five minutes.
When the House re-assembled, members of the opposition Congress staged a walkout over the issue. Congress MLA Kunal Choudhary raised the issue during the Question Hour when he sought a reply from the state government on whether it would continue to waive loans of the "remaining farmers", as per the initiative taken during the previous Kamal Nath government.
However, Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel alleged that the Congress deceived farmers on the issue of loan waiver. Congress members opposed this statement and said the present BJP-led government had admitted that loans of 27 lakh farmers were waived off during the previous Congress government led by Kamal Nath.
The state government should now clarify whether it would waive loans of the remaining farmers or not, they asked. This led to noisy scenes as both the ruling and opposition members started speaking simultaneously.
State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra alleged that no farmer got the benefit of loan waiver worth Rs 2 lakh during the Congress rule. Later, Congress members Priyavrat Singh, Govind Singh, Sajjan Singh and others termed the BJP government as "anti-farmer".
This was followed by heated arguments between the opposition and treasury benches. Speaker Girish Gautam then adjourned the House for five minutes. When the House re-assembled, the discussion over the issue continued. Amid the uproar, Congress members staged a walkout.