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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday, urging her to intervene and increase the Short Term Agricultural Loans (SAO) limit for the fiscal 2024-25. In the meeting held at North block, the chief minister highlighted a sharp decline in the proposed loan allocation by NABARD, which has sanctioned only Rs 2,340 crore against the state's applied limit of Rs 9,162 crore, a 58 per cent reduction compared to the previous year's Rs 5,600 crore. Presenting a detailed representation, Siddaramaiah emphasised that Karnataka aims to disburse short-term agricultural loans worth Rs 25,000 crore to 35 lakh farmers in 2024-25. In 2023-24, the state has already disbursed Rs 22,902 crore through the cooperative credit structure. The state government said that the drastic reduction in the SAO loan limit could significantly impede agricultural cooperation and potentially disrupt food grain production. NABARD attributed the reduced allocation to a ..
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said loans of farmers will be waived if his party comes to power at the Centre. Addressing a rally in Sakoli in Maharashtra's Bhandara district, he said the main issues plaguing the people of the country were unemployment and inflation, though these were ignored by the media. "Loans of farmers will be waived if the Congress comes to power. People are distressed due to unemployment and inflation. The situation is such that people earning just thousands and those making crores are paying the same GST," he said while attacking the NDA government at the Centre. Gandhi said his party would conduct a caste census after attaining power since it is important for the future of the country. Slamming the Centre's Agnipath programme, in which soldiers called 'Agniveers' are recruited for four years, Gandhi said it would be scrapped since "the Army was not in its favour". Attacking Modi, he said the prime minister, who calls himself an OBC, must tell ..
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the opposition INDIA alliance, if voted to power, will be the "voice of farmers" and frame policies to protect them. He was addressing a farmers' rally at Chandwad in Maharashtra's Nashik district along with NCP (SP) head Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, as part of the Congress' ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra'. "The INDIA alliance government will be the voice of farmers and work to protect their interests," Gandhi said. He promised loan waiver for farmers, restructuring of crop insurance scheme to benefit cultivators, to protect crop prices in formulation of export import policies and to make efforts to exclude agriculture from GST and work on only one tax. The Lok Sabha member from Wayanad also reiterated the Congress' promise of a legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) as per the Swaminathan committee report. The former Congress president claimed 20 to 25 people in the country have wealth equivalent to 70 cro