Bengaluru: The implementation of the farm loan waiver provided grist to yet another volley of allegations and counter allegations between the ruling Congress and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday.
BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa alleged that the government had not yet released funds towards the loan waiver component of farmers, and that 60 farmers had died since. The government had announced in June that it would waive crop loans up to Rs. 50,000 taken by farmers from co-operative banks. He said the government was “racing against time” to fulfil its commitment on loan waiver and also granting fresh loans to farmers as November 15 is the last date to pay the premium for crop insurance.
Issuing a rejoinder soon after, the Chief Minister’s office said the waiver had indeed benefited farmers since “they are not required to repay these loans”.
Yeddyurappa had also alleged that Siddaramaiah, to garner funds for waiving the loans, was trying to make the government-owned Mysore Minerals Ltd. (MML) divert its investible surplus from other banks as deposits with the Karnataka State Cooperative Apex Bank. He said the government was “forcing” MML to shift its deposits from commercial banks and place it in the Apex bank. This has been done despite an opinion by the MML Board of Directors that diverting its funds to the co-op. bank was in violation of the Department of Public Enterprises Rules, 2012, he added.
In the rejoinder, the government said the decision to obtain certain deposits of investible surplus funds from Public Sector Undertakings such as MML was done because the loan waiver scheme was not provided for in the 2017-18 budget. “This decision does not affect MML in any manner as the Apex bank will give the same rate of interest that was earned by MML through commercial banks,” said the release. The government is committed to providing necessary funds during the next financial year so that the Apex bank returns the deposit, the release said.
