Congress lying on farm loan waiver: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Accusing Congress of blatantly lying on farm loan waiver in the state, BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that both Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath have given contradictory statements on loan-waiver to farmers.

"Both Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Kamal Nath gave contradictory statements on farm loan waiver. While the former is saying that the loans of farmers were waived within two hours of forming a Congress government in the state, the latter has sent messages to lakhs of farmers on their mobiles stating that though the application for waiving loans have been received it cannot be granted as Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the Lok Sabha elections is in place," said Chouhan.

The former MP chief minister accused Gandhi of deceiving farmers, saying, "The Congress president has deceived farmers and is telling an utter lie on the issue of farm loan waiver. 120 days have passed since the Congress government was formed in the state but the farmers' loans have not been waived. Rahul Gandhi is lying that loans have been waived within two hours. He had promised that if within 10 days loans are not waived then he would change the Chief Minister."

"The loan amount stands at Rs 48,000 crore while in the budget they have only given Rs 5,000 crore. Moreover, they have only given Rs 1,300 crore to the banks. Now how can a loan amounting to Rs 48,000 crore be waived off by a sum of Rs 1,300 crore only," questioned Chouhan.

In June last year, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had assured farmers of Madhya Pradesh that his party would waive off all loans within 10 days of coming to power in the state.