(ET)
Rajasthan became the third BJP-ruled state, after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, to waive farm loans. The government made the waiver announcement late on Wednesday night after reaching an agreement with farmers who had been agitating since September 1.
As per the agreement, farm loans up to Rs 50,000 would be written off, putting an additional burden of about Rs 20,000 crore on the Vasundhara Raje government. The loan waiver announced by UP chief minister Yogi Aditya Nath Yogi Aditya Nath and his Maharashtra counterpart, Devendra Fadnavis, had cost the two state governments Rs 36,000 crore and Rs 34,000 crore, respectively.
“On farmers’ demand to waive loans up to Rs 50,000, a high-level technical committee would be constituted to study procedures adopted by different states, like UP, Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala,” state agriculture minister Prabhu Lal Saini said. The committee would submit its report in a month.
