Bhopal: Sparing time out of his hectic campaigning, Chief Minister Kamal Nath returned to Bhopal on Tuesday afternoon to reply to former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s allegations. Nath started with saying it was an apolitical press briefing and he owe no answers to Shivraj Singh Chouhan and only wants a certificate from the farmers. He also accused Chouhan of peddling blatant lies on farm loan waiver. He also furnished documentary evidences of all the processes involved in farm loan waiver.
“Shivraj ji don’t teach me the budget, I have seen many more budgets than you,” an apparently upset Nath said on Chouhan’s accusation of peanuts provisioned for farm loan waiver. The Chief Minister also claimed he had made a detailed plan for the waiver claiming being an exCM Shivraj should know the farm loans can’t be waived in a flash with magic wand.
Revealing his strategy for the resources, Nath said he had under One Time Settlement agreement with nationalised banks got them agreed to waive off 50 per cent amount as they do for corporate sector. For the loans of co-operative banks, we asked them to use their share capital and promised them to recapitalise them later.
“We promised loan waiver and we fulfilled it in two hours after our government came to power,” claimed Nath justifying the delay saying it needs time to be implemented completely. “I guess Shivraj ji doesn’t know how to open the portal (Agriculture) so I have offered him names of beneficiaries in printed form,” said the Chief Minister.
He informed, “In limited time, we got 47 lakh farmers apply for the loan waiver and 21 lakh of them got the money in their accounts ahead of poll code imposition.” The Election Commission had on May 7 offered permission for transfer of money to farmers’ accounts in areas where the polling was over, he added.
He also offered mobile phone numbers of the beneficiaries if anyone wanted to cross check the loan waiver credentials.“Every single line said by Shivraj is a lie,” affirmed Nath.