Keeping BJP's poll promise to small and marginal farmers, the Yogi Adityanath government today approved the waiver of loans of over 2.15 crore farmers, totalling Rs 36,359 crore.
The first cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, decided to float Kisan Rahat Bonds for raising the Rs 36,359 crore required for waiving the loans of small and marginal farmers who form 92.5 percent of the total 2.30 lakh farmers in the state.
Briefing mediapersons after a 90-minute meeting of the cabinet, senior minister Siddharth Nath Singh and Srikant Sharma said Rs 30,729 crore was required for waiving loans of small and marginal farmers.
Besides these, there were about 7 lakh other farmers who had taken loans which turned into non-performing assets ((NPAs).
In order to bring them back into the mainstream, their outstanding dues of Rs 5,630 crore have also been written off.
The UP government also decided to provide Rs 10 per quintal in addition to the Rs 1,625 per quintal minimum support price for wheat procurement this season as loading and unloading charges.
The cabinet meeting decided that 5,000 wheat centres will be set up in the state monitored by ministers for smooth procurement of the crop this season.
For this season, the target of 80 lakh metric tonnes of wheat procurement has been fixed and in the first phase it will be 40 lakh metric tonnes, they said adding that instructions have been issued to ensure direct procurement from farmers and no harassment at the purchase centres.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too had said in his campaign speeches that writing off farm loans would be among the foremost tasks of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
Government sources said around 2.3 crore farmers in the state suffered losses due to natural calamities in the recent past and were unable to repay loans amounting to about Rs 62,000 crore.
BJP said that it could be difficult to handle the burden of the loan waiver in a single financial year and that was one of the reasons to put the cabinet meeting on hold till a way was found to honour the prime minister's poll promise that the BJP government would take a decision on farm loan waiver at its first cabinet meeting.
Besides the farm loan waiver, the cabinet also took up other issues like legalising slaughterhouses, licenses of meat-sellers, extending more help to the water-scarce Bundelkhand region and sorting out the problems related to Purvanchal – issues mentioned in BJP’s manifesto.
The spokesman said Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal had been busy holding deliberations with senior officials of his department to honour the pre-poll promise at the earliest.
The government will have to pay the banks for the farm loan waiver. For that, it will either have to seek funds from the Centre or raise loans on its own, he added.
Mahesh Sharma Meets Adityanath Over Ramayana Museum in Ayodhya
Giving a push to the much talked about Ramayana Museum in Ayodhya, Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and held detailed deliberations on starting the project, part of the Ramayana circuit of his ministry.
“We had a detailed discussion on the works related to Ramayana museum which had run into some problems during the previous government even though the Union government was all set to release Rs 154 crore for the project,” Sharma said after the meeting.
“I have full faith that the central and state governments will work together to boost tourism and spiritual tourism in the state, and UP will become a hub of tourism in the country,” he said.
BJP sources had said Adityanath has accepted the Centre's proposal for the museum and agreed to provide land for it in a week's time.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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