Odisha
Farm Loan Waiver Comes to the Fore
With the elections to the Lok
Sabha and Odisha Assembly
months away, political parties are
out to woo farmers. Of all the
agricultural problems that are
driving peasants into desperation
and suicides, waiving of farm loans
occupy the centre stage. The
demand for farm loan waiver
gained currency in Odisha ever
since the Yogi Adityanath govern-
ment did it in Uttar Pradesh. Now
the BJP and Congress parties in
Odisha became vocal on this issue.
The leaders of BJP – Juel
Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan,
Central ministers – and state
Congress president Niranjan
Patnaik accused the state
government of doing little for
farmers and have promised to write
off all farm loans once they take
the reins of power in the ensuing
elections.
Under this pressure, the Chief
Minister Nabeen Patnaik promised
a group of farmers that met him to
examine the loan waiver proposal.
In an attempt to deflate the
pres