No farm loan recovery this year, says govt

AgriMin says 18.9 mn hectares of crop land affected by unseasonal rain & hail; oppn walks out after dissatisfaction with reply and response

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh announced on Monday that the government had deferred farm loan recovery for one year, due to crop damage.

He was replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the agrarian crisis and farmer suicides. However, dissatisfied with the minister's reply, the Congress, Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party staged a walkout.

Rain and hail had affected 18.9 million hectares of crop area,the minister said, revising his earlier figure of 9.4 mn, given to the Lok Sabha last week. He said the earlier figure had been based on reports from various states.

"Uttar Pradesh in its report on April 16 said 2.9 mn hectares were affected but in its report on April 24, the figure went up to 9.5 mn," he explained.

Earlier in the day, the Opposition closed ranks on a question pertaining to the land acquisition Bill, over the contentious issue of removal of the consent clause and inclusion of multicrop land.

Rural development minister Birender Singh had stated it was not possible to return 50 per cent of developed land to farmers after acquiring it and that the new Bill provided for 20 per cent of developed land to be given to farmers on the condition that they return the amount of compensation granted for it. The opposition launched an attack on him. Even the Shiv Sena, part of the ruling coalition, joined in, with its Sanjay Raut demanding to know if the land Bill would apply to Jammu and Kashmir as well.

In the post-lunch session, continuing the discussion on the agrarian crisis, CPI(M) general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury slammed the government for "total insensitivity". The Congress' Raj Babbar said: "The corporate sector has got enough waivers in one year of the Modi government but nothing has been done on farmers committing suicide."

In his reply, Radha Mohan Singh got into the cross-hairs of the opposition after saying the Congress-led regime had done nothing during its 10 years in power on the various recommendations in this regard of the MS Swaminathan committee report. This government, he noted, had been in office for barely 10 months.

As for farmer suicides, he said only Punjab, UP and Maharashtra had admitted to these but the figures were contestable. The minister said UP, Rajasthan and Haryana were the worst hit states in the recent unseasonal rain and hail. They've together sought Rs 10,100 crore as relief from the Centre for the affected farmers, he had told the Lok Sabha last week.

Other affected states are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Kerala.