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Flaws in waiver scheme: BJP

Sandeep Joshi

It was against advice of several official committees, says Arun Shourie

NEW DELHI: Continuing its attack on the government for its “fraudulent propaganda” and “fallacious claims” in the budget proposals, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said the farm loan waiver scheme would only help “influential” farmers and not give any relief to poor farmers. It also criticised the government for “failing to deliver” on the much-publicised schemes, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme, and “not doing enough for the infrastructure sector.”

Taking part in the budget discussion in the Rajya Sabha, BJP member Arun Shourie said: “Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram says that the farm credit during his tenure has gone up from Rs.1lakh crore to Rs. 2.40-lakh crore. Even then farmer suicide cases had continued. This means that loans are not reaching the right hands. The Prime Minister’s relief package for 31 districts has failed miserably. In fact, the loan waiver scheme was against the advice of several official committees, he added.”

Asserting that there were inherent flaws in the scheme that was devised to fool people for electoral purpose, Mr. Shourie said: “It will be influential farmers who are well-connected to banks who will benefit from the loan waiver scheme. Between 70-90 per cent farmers with less than two-hectares take loan from moneylenders. It is these farmers who need to be saved from the clutches of moneylenders.”

Mr. Shourie said the budget speech was a “litany” of claims and promises. “This government has been doing nothing but announcing new schemes by merging the old ones. All schemes announced in earlier budgets have been forgotten. Several schemes were announced to strengthen the public distribution schemes, but none have been successfully implemented. Similarly, all schemes for making Mumbai a Shanghai and converting it into an international financial centre, which were announced by the Prime Minister have long been forgotten.”

On the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme, Mr. Shourie cited the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report to state that the money was not reaching the beneficiaries, wages were not paid on time and muster rolls were being tampered with. The government had not made any provision for the loan waiver or taken into account crucial subsidy matters related to food security, petroleum sector, fertilizers and for implementing the pay commission’s recommendations.

CPI member D. Raja said the Finance Minister had announced very little budgetary support for the underprivileged and weaker sections in society. The government was not supporting the Department of Atomic Energy and increasing the budget needed for research and development work in nuclear energy.

Pointing to the rising increase in allocation for defence, Mr. Raja expressed concern over cases of corruption in defence deals.

AIADMK’s charge

AIADMK member A. Elavarasan said the announcements in the budget were aimed at polls. Alleging that Tamil Nadu was being used as a base to supply arms to naxalites in Andhra Pradesh, he demanded more fund allocation for internal security.

DMK’s Kanimozhi welcomed the budget and appreciated the gender budgeting done by the Finance Minister. She demanded more allocation for Tamil Nadu.

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