Chennai: Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin on Saturday met the Tamil Nadu farmers protesting in New Delhi demanding the formation of Cauvery Management Board, drought relief and waiver of crop loans from nationalised banks.
The DMK working president who spoke to the media after meeting the farmers urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet the resentatives of farmers, listen to their demands and find an amicable settlement for their problems.
Citing the contradiction between the state and central governments over the crop insurance, Stalin said the state finance minister is claiming that his government had paid the premium fully, but the centre had not taken action.
However, the central government authorities are saying that the centre had paid its share, but the state government had not done so. He said it is not known whether the state’s claim or the centre’s is true. However, instead of debating over the issue, the governments should take steps to end the protest, as one of the protesting farmers had already been admitted to hospital due to illness.
Referring to the promise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election campaign, Stalin said he had promised waiver of loans for all the farmers. The total amount of crop loans in Uttar Pradesh is about Rs 86,241 crores, he pointed out. He also recalled that the UPA government waived crop loans worth Rs 60,000 crores in 2008-2009 and the DMK government wrote off loans to the amount of Rs 7,000 crores.
He also recalled his demand that the State convene an all party meeting and make arrangements for a meeting of representatives from all the parties to meet Modi on problems of state farmers.
