Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has waived loans worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore of 15 industrialists since coming to power in 2014, PTI reported.
Addressing a rally in Chhattisgarh’s Charama ahead of the Assembly elections, Gandhi said the loan waiver was 10 times the annual amount needed to run the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. “Modi ji has given the keys to the treasury to 15 select people but the Congress wants the keys to be given to farmers, youth, poor, women and tribals,” Gandhi added.
He alleged that the name of Raman Singh’s son appears in the Panama Papers but no action was taken because Singh and Modi are corrupt. Last week, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Kartikey Chouhan recorded his statement in a defamation case filed against Gandhi for alleging that his name had appeared in the Panama Papers leak of 2016 that revealed the names of politicians, movie stars and business leaders across the world who had stashed money in tax havens. In defence, the Congress president said the BJP’s involvement in many corruption cases had confused him.
On Saturday, the Congress president said the party wants Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to become agriculture centres in five years and provide food, fruits and vegetables to the rest of the country.
The state will vote in two phases on November 12 and November 20, and the results will be announced on December 11. Campaigning for the first phase of the polls will end on Saturday night.
On Friday, Gandhi released the Congress’ manifesto for Chhattisgarh elections – titled “Jan Ghoshna Patra” – in Chief Minister Raman Singh’s constituency Rajnandgaon. The party has promised to waive farmers’ loans within 10 days of coming to power. Minimum support price for paddy will be fixed at Rs 2,500 per quintal and maize at Rs 1,700 per quintal, it added. The manifesto also promised to ban the sale of liquor in the state.
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