Poll-bound MP considers farm-loan interest waiver

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh (MP) government is likely to announce a waiver of farm-loan interests in the state, a step aimed at curbing rural angst in the run-up to assembly elections scheduled in November.

Five states, three of them Bjp-ruled, have announced farm-loan waivers so far, as distress in the countryside emerges as a key political challenge.

“A proposal to write off interests is under consideration to give relief to farmers. A decision has not been taken yet but it is likely to come up before the Cabinet soon,” Gauri Shankar Chaturbhuj Bisen, the agriculture minister of MP, told HT here Monday.

A burst of discontent in the heartland farming state, like that of neighbouring Maharashtra, laid siege to the three-time Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government last year.

Five farmers died in police firing during a violent uprising on June 6, 2017, in the central city of Mandsaur, leading to an escalation.

The farmers had blocked roads and dumped their produce and milk on the roads, demanding a loan waiver and profitable prices. The state government, wary of a political fallout, quickly announced a flagship price-deficit scheme in October 2017 to pay the difference between the prices farmers get and the average modal prices of commodities.

“Our chief minister, when he went on that fast following the Mandsaur incident, indicated then that he would come out with a policy on this.