Mumbai: Saying a firm no to farm loan write-off, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today announced an additional capital expenditure of Rs 25,000 crore for the agricultural sector in the next five years.
The government will earmark an additional Rs 5,000 crore for agricultural development every year, said Fadnavis. "We plan capital expenditure of Rs 25,000 crore in five years, and if needed, would levy additional taxes to raise funds," he said.
Taking the line that loan waiver will not serve any purpose, Fadnavis said 9,614 farmers had committed suicides since the loan waiver (announced by UPA government) in 2008. "Thirty-five lakh farmers have no access to institutional credit. As many as 60 per cent of farmers in Marathwada and Vidarbha have no loan facility at all. For whom are you seeking the loan waiver?" asked Fadnavis.
He slammed the Opposition, the Congress and the NCP for the current state of affairs, saying "they did nothing when in power to provide succour to farmers, but are now blaming his government over farmer suicides".
The Chief Minister was replying to a marathon debate in the Assembly on the issue of agrarian crisis against the backdrop of the current spell of drought, which was preceded by hailstorms and unseasonal rains earlier this year.
The previous Congress-NCP government set up many committees on farmers' issues, but "did not bother to read reports prepared by these committees", he added.
"If you had done that, you would not have been sitting in the Opposition. You would not have targeted our government on the issue of farmer suicides." The Chief Minister also alleged that the Congress-NCP government virtually destroyed district cooperative banks.
"If the banks do not give loans to farmers, FIRs would be registered against them," he said.
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