Farm-loan waiver has taken a political turn in Karnataka. The tone was set by the spat between Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Opposition leader BS Yedurappa on the floor of the recently-concluded Assembly session in Belagavi.

Yedurappa taunted the Chief Minister for the delay in implementing farm-loan waiver. Kumaraswamy hit back saying the Opposition seems to be in touch with public sector banks.

The demand for early implementation has mounted pressure on the ruling Janata Dal Secular (JD-S)-Congress coalition, especially after Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh too announced loan waiver.

On Friday, former union finance minister and senior congress leader P Chidambaram, also lent his weight for farm-loan waiver. “Farm-loan waiver is an imperative. In one district of Maharashtra alone, 108 farmers committed suicide. In the country, there are 5.28 crore small and medium farmers (10 crore farmer families), which are indebted. The average indebtedness of farmers is between ₹90,000 and ₹1 lakh. How will a family ever repay this loan? Our new governments have responded to the dire needs of the situation.”

Hitting at the economists, Chidambaram said they return to farming. Let them take two acres of land and cultivate it, and then you should ask them to comment on farm-loan waiver.” He said, “to criticise, yes, economists must experience what farming is in this country, whether it is bad or good, politicians people will decide.”

BJP for Fasal Bima

The Centre, , which is not keen on farm-loan waiver, wants to push Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) which is a government-sponsored crop insurance scheme.

Saffron party’s Central leaders have reportedly instructed the party’s State unit to take up the issue of delay aggressively. Since then, the party has gone on offensive at the Belagavi Assembly session.

Reason for delay

Explaining the delay, Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, MD and CEO, Syndicate Bank and Chairman of Karnataka SLBC, said the Karnataka government is keen to expedite its execution. But most of the loans have become NPAs. The government is requesting us to share the burden by writing off a part of the principle. There is discussion on whether it can be done or not.

Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, under flak from the Opposition parties and farmers, is looking at ways to fulfil the promise. He said though he is keen to implement waiver, it cannot be done overnight, and insisted that he will unveil the road map in the forthcoming budget in January.

For the farm-loan waiver beneficiaries, Chief Minister said north Karnataka districts will get a major chunk of ₹46,753 crore being spent for farm loans. ₹29,190 crore will be spent on 12 northern districts. Old Mysore, comprising of 12 districts, will get ₹12,073 crore. Central Karnataka districts will get ₹3,981 crore and three Coastal districts ₹1,507 crore.

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