Rs 3,750 crore to fight ‘national debt crisis’

‘‘I will directly monitor the implementation (of the package) from my office,’’ Singh said at the end of his two-day tour of Vidarbha.

• Among the major short-term measures of the package is total interest waiver for these districts with June 30, 2006 as the cut-off date. ‘‘The entire overdue interest on the original loans will be waived and the farmers will have no past interest burden as on date so they will be immediately eligible for fresh loan,’’ the prime minister said.

The waiver rectifies the restructure offer already part of the state package — farmers complained that the offer for loans above Rs 25,000 did not happen soon enough for farmers to avail fresh loans. The Central waiver will not cover those already exempted by the state which will bear half the waiver cost.

• Overdue loans worth Rs 1,300 crore as on June 30, 2006 will be rescheduled for 3-5 years with a moratorium of one year. Thus the farmer will have to repay only the original interest accrued on the original loan for the repayment period.

• The PM also announced additional credit flow of Rs 1,275 crore for the six districts for 2006-07. ‘‘Special teams from NABARD and the lead banks will ensure it,’’ he said.

• Rs 2,177 crore, the biggest chunk of the package, has been reserved for improving irrigation facilities in the districts. ‘‘Over 523 stuck-up projects will be completed in three years,’’ said Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who accompanied the prime minister. Lack of irrigation has been one of the main reasons for crop failures in the region.

• Other plans: Rs 180-crore Quality Seeds Replacement Programme; Rs 240 crore for watershed development, check dams and rain water harvesting; Rs 225-crore National Horticulture Mission to help distressed orange cultivators and a Rs 135-crore cattle and fisheries development programme to give them additional sources of income.

• Reserve fund of Rs 50 lakh with district collectors to be disbursed to families to treat ailing members.

The prime minister admitted that the agrarian crisis wasn’t restricted to the 31 districts where the package would be implemented. ‘‘I recognise that there is a nationwide problem of indebtedness. We need to treat this as a national problem and address it on war footing,’’ he said. The Centre would set up a group of experts in the next few days, he said, to study agricultural indebtedness in totality and suggest relief measures. ‘‘The group will give its recommendations in three months after consulting the state governments and based on those recommendations, the government will take effective steps to ensure that the farming community gets substantial relief from indebtedness,’’ he said.

No say on price rise

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while acknowledging that unremunerative prices is one of the main reasons that have pushed the farmers into a debt trap, remained non-committal on the demand for increasing the minimum support price (MSP) for cotton. ‘‘We have a mechanism to decide the MSP. But I will discuss the issue with the Agriculture Cost and Prices Commission,’’ Singh said. He also struck a different note on the view that India needs to protect its farmers’ interests from interntional price fluctuations engendered by WTO regimen. ‘‘There are enough safeguards in the WTO to safeguard our farmers’ interests. Our policies will focus on protecting our farmers’ interest,’’ he said. — ENS

‘Eye-wash package’

• It’s disappointing. Unless you pay Rs 3,000 per quintal to cotton, the farmers will never be able to come out of this crisis. This package will, in fact, increase the rate of suicides.’’

Kishore Tiwari, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti

• We don’t think this package has anything to stop the suicides. What was needed was total loan waiver, as indebtedness has been the main cause for suicides, and remunerative price to prevent future indebtedness. Also, there is nothing in the package for other districts. We didn’t expect this from the PM.

Shetkari Sanghatana leader Saroj Kashikar said