BHOPAL: Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s promise of a farm loan waiver if his party is voted to power in Madhya Pradesh seems to have helped it reap a rich harvest of votes and end 15-year-long wait for power.
In the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s populist promise made during campaigning for the November 28 polls, cultivators did not sell their paddy produce and stocked them to reap the benefit of the promised loan write-off, a farmer leader said on Wednesday.
This was done to avoid paying loan installments to banks as sale proceeds would have been directly deposited in their accounts, he said.
The Congress chief had promised loan waiver for farmers within 10 days of forming the government in the state.
Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation, popularly known as MP Markfed, procured just 67,148 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy from farmers between November 15 and December 8, an official said.
The paddy procurement was 4.30 lakh MT between the same period last year.
The procurement carried out by the MP Civil Supplies Corporation was also reportedly negligible, though its chairman Hitesh Bajpai did not provide any figures.
"Farmers held back their paddy produce knowing if they sell it off, their payment under Minimum Support Price (MSP) would be deposited in their accounts by government procurement agencies and the banks would deduct their loan installments," Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh (RKMM) president Shiv Kumar Sharma said.
Please click here to read more.