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 ₹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.
{{/usCountry}}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.
{{/usCountry}}Also read: India should brace itself for economic slowdown for some time: Arvind Subramanian
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 ₹650 crore and ₹600 crore.
Also read: Govt staff, income tax payees not eligible for farm loans waiver in Madhya Pradesh
Earlier, the Aayog unveiled a strategy document with an aim to accelerate growth to 8 per cent and propel the country towards a USD 5-trillion economy by 2030.
The ‘Strategy for New India @ 75’ document, prepared after extensive consultations with over 800 stakeholders from within the government - central, state and district levels, was released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.