Karnataka implementing farm loan waiver: CM

Bengaluru, March 6 (IANS) Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the Karnataka government failed to waive off farm loans it had promised, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said loans worth Rs 6,076 crore had been written off by the state.

"Prime Minister should be aware that the Karnataka government has released a waiver list for 15.1 lakh farmers for about Rs 6,076 crore under the loan waiver scheme, which is being implemented transparently," Kumaraswamy tweeted.

In June last year, the Chief MInister had announced the waiver for farm loans worth Rs 48,000 crore in the state.

Addressing a public rally in Karnataka's Kalaburagi earlier in the day, Modi alleged that the the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and the Congress promised farm loan waivers only to seek votes during the Assembly election.

Kumaraswamy lamented that Modi should look into the issue of the Central government's existing schemes being "inaccessible" to the needy.

The state has been paying the wages for the Union government's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) 2005, which guarantees the right to work for all, as funds to be received from the Centre were pending, he said.

"Before ridiculing the initiatives of the Karnataka government for farmers, look into your own government at how the existing schemes are inaccessible to the needy. Karnataka has paid the MGNREGA wages from December 2018 with advances from the state fund," Kumaraswamy said.

Such funds pending for receipt from the Central government, including those from previous years, have crossed Rs 2,000 crore, he claimed.