Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): The farmers' organizations in Jabalpur are preparing to approach the High Court to raise their demand for farmer loan waivers. Thousands of farmers are facing the brunt of half or incomplete loan waiver schemes.
There is no doubt that political parties use the issue of farmers to bake political bread, but the biggest question is, how long will farmers be made political weapons. Not to be mentioned, the farmer loan waiver issue was the reason for the change of power in the 2018 assembly elections when Congress returned to power after 15 years.
According to a report, there are thousands of farmers in the state who got the certificate of loan waiver but the banks did not waive the loan and now they have been put on the defaulter list.
Keshav Patel of Jabalpur is one such farmer who is facing the brunt of loan waivers. Keshav Patel has about five acres of land which is in the name of his mother Krishna Bai. He had a debt of Rs 92,372.
In the year 2018, the Cooperative Bank waived his loan. They gave a certificate and also printed his passbook that the loan is waived under the Jai Kisan Loan Waiver Scheme.
"But now the same bank is pressurizing me to repay the loan. Bank officials say that my loan has not been waived and I am now called a defaulter farmer," said Keshav.
Not only Keshav but there are thousands of farmers like Keshav who are making rounds of banks with loan waiver certificates.
State president of Bharat Krishak Samaj Sangathan, KK Aggarwal said that he is preparing to file public interest litigation in the High Court.
"The government has cheated the farmers in the name of loan waiver. When the government changed in Madhya Pradesh, the new government did not take any step regarding this scheme and left the farmers midway. We don't care which political party is in power in the state. The decision of farm loan waiver was taken by the state government and now it is the responsibility of the government to fulfill it," said Aggarwal.
