'BJP would waive farm loans if elected to power'

Agriculture loans would be waived if the BJP is voted to power in Odisha in 2019, Union ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

The two senior BJP leaders made the announcement while addressing a meeting of the party's farmers' wing here.

"All farm loans will be waived immediately in Odisha if the BJP forms government in the state after the Assembly elections in 2019," Oram, the Union tribal affairs minister, said at the meeting.

Asserting that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is sincerely working towards doubling the income of farmers, Oram said the decision to increase the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy by Rs 200 per quintal was a "historic" move aimed at empowering the farmers.

Oram said that the Narendra Modi government has taken a host of measures to boost the agriculture sector and raise the income of farmers across the country ever since it came to power in 2014.

Hitting out at the BJD government in Odisha, he said though Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that Rs 100 bonus would be provided on MSP of paddy, the promise is yet to be translated into action.

A large number of debt-ridden farmers were "forced to commit suicide" in Odisha due to "anti-farmer" policies of the state government, he alleged.

Expressing similar views, Pradhan, the Union petroleum minister, exuded confidence that the BJP would form government both at the Centre and in the state in 2019. After forming government, its first task would be to waive all farm loans, he said.

Stating that farm loans have been waived in BJP-ruled states, Pradhan slammed the BJD government in Odisha for "failing" to waive agriculture loans and provide bonus over MSP for paddy.