'Farmer suicides boomed post UPA's Rs 70k cr loan waiver', Narendra Singh Tomar alleged that non farmer's loans were waived then

New Delhi, July 9: “Suicides by farmers increased after a loan waiver of Rs 70,000 crore was announced by the previous UPA government in 2008’, said Parshottam Rupala on Tuesday in the parliamentary house uprooting the roots of rising farmers suicide cases.

 

Rupala, minister of state for agriculture, further said that an audit conducted after the announcement of the mega loan waiver scheme had found that people who were not farmers were also given the loan waiver.

 

 

Replying to a question on whether the Supreme Court has suggested the government bring out a national policy to control farmers suicides, Narendra Singh Tomar said that the Supreme Court in its order on July 6, 2017 had stated that an issue like this could not be dealt with overnight, and that it was justified for the Attorney General to seek time to work out schemes appropriately.

 

Further, the Supreme Court had stated that it would be for the Centre to determine whether and if so what, course should be adopted for this purpose.

 

“Agriculture being a state subject, state governments undertake development of perspective plans and ensure effective implementation of programmes and schemes. The Centre supplements efforts of the state governments through various schemes and programmes”, he added.

 

The minister said that the government had been reorienting the agriculture sector by focusing on an income-centric approach as against the earlier production centric policy. “This focuses on achieving high productivity, reduced cost of cultivation and remunerative price on the produce, with a view to earning higher profits for farmers”, he signed off.