MP: To cultivate vote bank among farmers, Baghel re-runs crop loan waiver promise
Raipur: Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has re-run the poll strategy adopted by Congress in the 2018 assembly elections in Chhattisgarh by announcing to waive crop loan of farmers in the state if his party is voted to power in the two-phase November polls.
The loan waiver promise had proved to be a game changer for Congress in the last assembly elections bringing the party to power in Chhattisgarh after a gap of 15 years.
“We will write off crop loans of farmers if Congress is voted to power in the state in the upcoming assembly polls”, Mr Baghel said while posting his election speech made in Shakti in the state in X, formerly Twitter.
The move to write off farm loans had cost the state exchequer around Rs 7,200 crore.
Mr Baghel also pledged to procure 20 quintal of paddy per acre from the farmers if his party returned to power in the state.
The government was currently purchasing 16 quintal per acre from the farmers.
He also promised to build 17.5 lakh houses for the homeless.
The ruling Congress is heavily banking on the various welfare schemes for the farmers being implemented by the state government to woo the farming class comprising 36 lakh families in Chhattisgarh in the November assembly elections in the state.
The state government has implemented Rajiv Gandhi Nyay Yojana to ensure a fixed income for the farmers.
The state government has been procuring paddy from the farmers at the rate of Rs 2,500 per quintal under the input subsidy scheme.
The state government is also procuring cow dung at Rs 2 a kg from the farmers under the ‘Gauthan Yojana’.
State BJP president and Lok Sabha member Arun Sao who is contesting the upcoming assembly polls in Lormi under Bilaspur district, on Tuesday indicated that his party would address all the issues of the farmers and also meet their expectations in its election manifesto, to be made public very soon.
He said that the paddy procurement from the farmers was first conceived in Chhattisgarh by former chief minister Dr Raman Singh.
“The welfare schemes being implemented by the Bhupesh Baghel government are marred by corruption scandals. Soil is being collected in the name of cow dung to embezzle money”, he alleged.
Mr Sao alleged that around 1,000 farmers committed suicide during the Bhupesh Baghel government in the state for having failed to pay their crop loans.
