Cong asks PM to announce waiver of farm loans during U'khand visit

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Uttarakhand next week, the opposition Congress today asked him to announce a farm loan waiver scheme, saying it was time he repaid his debt to the farmers who voted the BJP to power in the state last year.

The state unit of the Congress said it welcomes the prime minister, who is visiting Uttarakhand for the first time after the BJP's victory "with a big mandate" in the assembly election.

"It is time for the prime minister to repay the debt to the people of the state by at least offering a loan waiver to farmers and a financial package for the state," Pradesh Congress Committee president Pritam Singh told PTI.

It will be a gift to the people of the state, he said.

The BJP won 57 out of the total 70 assembly seats in 2017.

Claiming that at least 10 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide since the BJP came to power in March last year, Singh said the saffron party had promised to waive farm loans in its "vision document" ahead of the assembly poll.

"It is time the prime minister began to fulfil the promises he had made to the people of the state to give credence to his words," Singh said, referring to Modi's "much-publicised double engine" governance promise.

He said all reconstruction work in Kedarnath after the 2013 natural disaster was carried out with the Rs 7,500 crore rehabilitation package announced by the previous UPA government and Modi should clear the remaining Rs 3,000 crore under the package.

Reminding Modi of his statement in the aftermath of the 2013 disaster that the rehabilitation package was not enough, Singh said if the prime minister's heart bleeds for the people of Uttarakhand he would announce a fresh package without delay.

More than 5,500 people were "presumed dead" by the Uttarakhand government a year after the natural disaster.

Modi will preside over the main event on the International Yoga Day on June 21. The function will be held at the Forest Research Institute campus in Dehradun.