Rajasthan farmers accuse Congress of breaking poll promise to waive farm loans

Before coming to power in Rajasthan, the Congress had promised that farm loans would be waived. Now, more than three years later, farmers are sceptical that promise will ever be fulfilled.

Sitaram Meena, a 75-year-old farmer in Rajasthan's Nimehda, stands alone in his farmland along with his son. He had taken a bank loan in 2017, which now amounts to Rs 22 lakh. He had to mortgage his 44 bighas of land to get the loan from Allahabad Bank.

The Congress in Rajasthan, before coming to power in 2018, had promised that loans of farmers would be waived in the desert state. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi went to the extent of saying that if voted to power, the party would waive farmers’ debt in 10 days' time.

Now, more than three years have passed since Ashok Gehlot took oath as chief minister. Meena and his son, Mangilal, who has been managing finances for his septuagenarian father, say they have no hope left that the government would fulfil its main pre-poll promise of farm loan waiver.

"We had taken a loan of Rs 22 lakh in 2017. The bank requires that in five years time, the loan has to be either renewed or paid in full. Today, our land is mortgaged and we have no hope that the government will waive the loan,” Sitaram Meena told India Today.

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His son Mangilal detailed that the loan was required to purchase agricultural equipments for drilling etc, as Nimhera, on the outskirts of Jaipur, is afflicted by low level water level, and irrigation requires expensive equipments.

"We have to pay interest on the loan every six months. We fear that even our land could be seized and auctioned off if we do not pay the loan. We have no hope left in the Gehlot government. We do not think that it will waive our loan," said Mangilal.