Rahul wants land limit raised for farm loan waiver

FARMER-FRIENDLY: Rahul Gandhi wants localised cutoff dates for farm loan waiver.

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New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi made his presence felt in the Lok Sabha on Thursday with several suggestions to improve the lot of farmers. He said instead of one cutoff date of March 31, 2007 for farm loan waiver, there should be localised cutoff dates according to farming patterns.

"A single cut-off date unfairly penalises farmers in these regions. It would greatly help if localised cut-off dates were considered so that every deserving farmer benefits from the waiver," he said amid thumping of desks by the UPA members.

Gandhi Jr was participating in the discussion on the Union Budget. Hailing the Budget as a 'landmark' one, he also made a strong pitch for raising the land limit for getting benefits under the farm loan waiver.

The current ceiling of two hectares for eligible farmers does not account for land productivity and excludes deserving farmers in poorly irrigated areas, he said.

Referring specifically to dry land areas like Vidarbha, Rahul said: "Perhaps, we could consider making the land ceiling variable based upon land productivity."

The young Congress General Secretary also suggested that several government programmes would be better implemented if fund transfers were linked to achieving RTI and social audit objectives.

"I humbly request the Finance Minister to consider budgetary provisions and incentives to encourage states to build Self-Help Group networks which comprehensively cover the poor," he said.

(With agency inputs)