The Hindu : National : Centre's assurance on waiving of farm loans

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Saturday, Jul 10, 2004

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National

Centre's assurance on waiving of farm loans

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi. July 9. The Government today assured the Lok Sabha that it would "carefully examine'' the demand to waive farmers' loans, but urged the members to give the package announced in June a fair trial. The Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, made the assurance during question hour.

The demand was made by members from across the political divide. The issue saw a rare convergence of opinion between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Raising the issue, Suresh Kurup of the CPI (M) drew the Ministers' attention to the fact that 91 farmers had committed suicide in Kerala's Wayanad district alone. He called on the Minister to take immediate steps to bail out the farmers.

Mr. Kurup found vocal support from V.K. Malhotra (BJP) and Veerendra Kumar of the Janata Dal (Secular) who also urged Mr. Chidambaram to consider the waiving the loans taken by the farmers. " Several of them have been forced to commit suicide because of the burden placed by the loans," they said.

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