Having placed agriculture at the forefront of Government policy with the Rs 60,000-crore debt relief for farmers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday sought to lay at rest all doubts about the Government’s commitment to the farming community.“The sheer size of our gesture (of giving debt relief to farmers) shows our commitment to agriculture,” the Prime Minister said in both Houses of Parliament while replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to President’s address.“Such a programme has never been conceived or attempted before,” he said. “Our Government would continue to persist to give agriculture a new dynamic look.” Responding to queries raised by Opposition benches as to how the Government planned to find resources for such a huge loan waiver, the Prime Minister assured the Houses by saying, “The package will be well funded. Banks will be compensated as and when their loans become due. The details are being worked out.”He said his Government realised that a large number of farmers availed loans from private agencies and for that the Centre would popularise an already running scheme of inclusive finance by which every farmer will be encouraged to have a bank account.The Prime Minister said the debt relief programme would be a simple exercise which should be over by June. “It will not be a long drawn out programme.”Taking a dig at the NDA, the Prime Ministers said the debt relief package was “an attempt to finally remove the distress of the farmers under the NDA regime”.“What we have done is nothing more than picking up the distress bills left behind by the NDA rule,” he said triggering off angry protests from the opposition benches.On the women’s reservation Bill, the Prime Minister promised to call an all-party meeting immediately after the Parliament goes into recess on March 20.Both the BJP and Left parties demanded that the Prime Minister come out with a specific time-frame to introduce this Bill. CPI(M) MP in Rajya Sabha Brinda Karat said unless the Government got the Bill passed in this session itself, it would not be possible to put it in practice in the next general election.However, the Prime Minister refused to take the bait. “We cannot say what will be the outcome of our efforts. But we will make sincere efforts to reach out to all political parties on this issue and try to arrive at a consensus.”Not happy with the Prime Minister’s response, the BJP staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha.
