The previous Manmohan Singh government’s mega farm loan waiver scheme announced last year has often been touted as a significant factor in Congress’ stunning victory in the 2009 parliamentary elections. Now, there are numbers to back the claim. Figures show that states which topped the list in waiving off loans of farmers are also those where Congress did surprisingly well in the polls. Andhra Pradesh leads the chart with waivers totalling Rs 11,353 crore. About 77.55 lakh farmers benefited from the scheme. Not surprisingly, Congress bagged 33 Lok Sabha seats out of a total 42 in the state, improving on its impressive 2004 tally of 29 seats. Andhra Pradesh accounts for 17% of the total Rs 65,318 crore written off by public sector banks (PSBs) so far under the debt relief scheme announced by UPA-1 in 2008.
Uttar Pradesh— where Congress’s performance was no less than astounding— is second among states and UTs with waivers amounting to Rs 9,000 crore to 54 lakh farmers, according to finance ministry data. Congress claimed 21 seats in the state, ahead of BSP and just two seats behind Samajwadi Party. Among other significant states, Maharashtra clocked third position for having waived off more than Rs 8,900 crore to 42 lakh farmers. Again, Congress did very well in the state and even returned to power in the assembly elections.
The connection between loan waivers and Congress’s performance works the other way round as well. State where the disbursement was comparatively low —Gujarat, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh— were the ones which sided with the NDA.
Enthused by the success of the scheme and the political dividends it paid to the Congress, the UPA government has now extended it till December 2009 from its earlier deadline of June. Though disbursement to small and marginal farmers was meant to be purely by eligibility, statistics throw up some disturbing facts as well. Agrarian states like Bihar and Punjab lag far behind in terms of number of farmers having benefited from the scheme. This may also suggest that small farmers in these states are still marginalized when it comes to accessing agricultural credit. Clearly, the task for UPA-II is cut out if it wants to achieve its stated objective of inclusive growth.
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( 3.69 cr farmers benefited from loan waiver)
: Andhra Pradesh leads the mega loan waiver scheme chart with waivers totalling Rs 11,353 crore.
While Bihar was at ninth position in the waiver chart with 17 lakh farmers benefiting from the one-time settlement scheme and the relief totalling Rs 3,158 crore, Punjab did not even figure among the top ten. The waiver in this state amounted to Rs 1,223 crore, extended to 18.44 lakh farmers. The scheme was announced in the Union Budget 2008-09 and covered all agricultural loans disbursed by scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions to small and marginal farmers. According to the finance ministry, at least 3.69 crore farmers benefited from the scheme till November 2009. The government claims that all eligible farmers have been covered. This year, the government has announced an increase of Rs 50,000 crore over the 2008-09 farm credit of Rs 2.80 lakh crore to cover at least 5 crore farmers.
Bumper Yield
At Rs 11,353cr, AP disbursed maximum waiver among the states, clinching 33 seats for Congress in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections compared to 29 in 2004
Uttar Pradesh, which waived loans worth more than Rs 9000 crore, yielded 21 seats in 2009, against a measly 9 in 2004
Maharashtra, whose waiver totalled Rs 8,900 cr, brought in 24 seats for Cong, compared to 13 in 2004
States which did not spend on the waiver — Gujarat, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh — saw voters side with NDA
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(SOURCE : TOI)
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