Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the party has delivered on its pre-election promise to waive farmers’ loans in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh within 10 days of assuming charge. “It’s done!” he tweeted. “Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have waived farm loans. We asked for 10 days, we did it in two.”
His statement came hours after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot waived farm loans up to Rs 2 lakh, PTI reported. The scheme will cost the newly elected state government an estimated Rs 18,000 crore.
The Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh goverments had waived farmers’ loans on December 17 within hours of their chief ministers taking oath.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi claimed that his party has managed to wake up the Bharatiya Janata Party chief ministers of Assam and Gujarat “from their deep slumber” and will do the same to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress president was referring to Gujarat’s decision to waive Rs 625 crore worth of unpaid electricity bills of more than 6 lakh people in rural areas and the Assam government’s Rs 600-crore farm loan waiver.
Farmers across the country had staged a massive protest in June to demand fair prices for their produce and a loan waiver. On June 6, 2017, six farmers had died in police firing in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district.
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