Congress President Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday, 19 December, that the party had “woken” up the BJP governments in Assam and Gujarat after the two states waived off farm loans and rural electricity bills respectively.
Gandhi added that the Congress will wake up Prime Minister Narendra Modi too. “PM is still asleep. We will wake him up too.”
Gandhi’s tweet on Wednesday indicated that the states made the move under pressure from the Congress party, which started waiving off farm loans soon after assuming power in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. "The Congress party has managed to wake the Chief Ministers of Assam and Gujarat from their deep slumber,” Gandhi wrote.
Gandhi's jibe comes a day after he vowed that the Congress and other opposition parties would not let PM Modi sleep until all farm loans are waived off.
On Tuesday, 18 December, the BJP-led government in Gujarat announced that it will waive off electricity bills in rural areas, a day after Assam said that it had approved farm loan waivers worth Rs 600 crore. (SOURCE?)
Assam Announces Loan Waivers
Farm loan waivers announced by the Assam government are expected to benefit around eight lakh farmers in the state, as debt woes of farmers become a major issue in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting held on Monday, 17 December.
Assam is the third state to waive farm loans in the last few days after the newly-constituted Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh announced farm loan waivers on Monday.
Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are among the states that had waived off farm loans earlier.
Due to these schemes there will be an additional burden of Rs 600 crore on the state exchequer this fiscal.
(With inputs from PTI, IANS)
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