New Delhi, Dec 19 :
NITI Aayog vice chairperson Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday waded into the political row over the farmers’ loan waiver saying that no government had worked for farmers as much as the Modi government, reports ANI.
“What can I say? It’s like maano na maano main hi champion. Government works after looking at everything. I don’t think any other government has ever worked for farmers as much as the present government is doing,” he said after Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s tweet that Prime Minister Modi was sleeping (on loan waiver).
The vice-chairperson of Niti Aayog, a policy think tank of the government, added that no one else had accepted the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission report, this government did, it raised credit for farmers to Rs 10.50 lakh crore. “Rahul Gandhi’s governments should do their work, others will do theirs”, Kumar said. Two of the three Congress-ruled states — Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh — have announced farm loan waivers and Rajasthan, according to officials, is working on it. The Congress came to power in these three states in the recently-held Assembly elections with farm loan waiver high on the agenda and the party started work within hours of taking over by announcing a waiver.
In his attack on the Prime Minister, Gandhi had said “Congress and all opposition parties will force Modi to give farm loan waiver to farmers… Will not allow Modi to sleep till he waives the loan.”
Within days of the farm loan waiver, the BJP-ruled Gujarat and Assam waived decided to write off rural electricity bills and farm loans respectively, to the tune of Rs 650 crore and Rs 600 crore.
