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Journalism of Courage
A day after springing a bonanza on farmers, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today said the Government would ‘‘examine’’ the issue of waiving loans of poor farmers and called upon MPs to assess if the measures announced in the Budget are being implemented in their constituencies.
Replying to questions in the Lok Sabha today, Chidambaram said: ‘‘We have to very carefully examine the question of waiving loans or interest…Either ways, someone has to pay for it and we have to decide after a deep study who will take the hit, whether it would be the banks or the exchequer, etc.’’
CPI(M) MP Suresh Kurup stressed farmers were committing suicide because they were unable to repay loans. The Finance Minister, however, would have the MPs see the results for themselves first. ‘‘I would request all members to go to their constituencies and monitor the progress in implementation of the Budget package for farmers and inform me. I will take action if relief measures are not being implemented,’’ he said.
BJP’s V.K. Malhotra shot back: ‘‘The UPA CMP says there would be a special package for farmers. People are dying in both drought-affected and other areas. Why is the UPA not waiving off the loans and the interest?’’
‘‘I cannot answer to this issue off-hand,’’ Chidambaram said. ‘‘We have to examine it…What we have done is the best we could do. We will review it after some time.’’ The Minister said measures would be taken to institutionalise credit given by money-lenders and the Government would hold banks responsible for the performance of the Rural Regional Banks. Forty of the 196 RRBs are already in the red.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel faced several questions on the increase of FDI cap in his sector. Patel said there was no proposal to open up the domestic aviation to foreign airlines. On privatisation of airports, he said: ‘‘Though the 1997 policy on airport infrastructure granted upto 74 per cent of foreign equity participation, the maximum permissible limit for the same in case of restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports is only 49 per cent.’’
