Bengaluru: Expressing displeasure over the attitude of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Central Government over drastic cut in loans from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday pointed out loans from NABARD came down to Rs 2, 340 crore this year while it was Rs 5, 600 crore the previous year.
Regarding the cut in loans to farmers from NABARD, Chief Minister told reporters in Bengaluru that he in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Niramala Sitaraman asked not to cut the loans to farmers from NABARD which will be ‘injustice’ and ‘betrayal’ of farmers trust.
“It is down by 58 percent,” said the Chief Minister and questioned Union Ministers from Karnataka-H.D. Kumaraswamy and Prahalad Joshi over the reduction in NABARD loans. “What are they doing (as Ministers from Karnataka)?,” he asked.
He wanted the BJP-led Central Government to emulate Karnataka in disbursement of farm loans and stated the Karnataka Government offers farm loans interest-free loans up to Rs 5 lakh and charges 3 percent interest for farm loans availed between Rs 10-15 lakh. “Why can’t the Central Government do the same thing?” he asked.
The Chief Minister also referred to the ‘injustice’ to Karnataka in tax share from Central Government, Siddaramaiah stated Karnataka collects about Rs 4.5 lakh crore as taxes to Central Government and in return, the State receives about Rs 60,000 crore. The rest of the tax collected money is “swallowed” by the Central Government and criticized by the Union Minister for Large Scale Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy and his father and former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda “Have they ever questioned about it?”
Siddaramaiah wanted Kumarswamy to speak to Niramala Sitaraman over cuts in farm loans from NABARD and get things done. NABARD falls under the Union Finance Ministry. He recalled the budgetary announcement made by Nirmala Sitaraman to allocate Rs 5,300 for Upper Bhadra Project (UBP) in Karnataka but nothing substantial happened and asked Kumaraswamy to take up the matter with Nirmala Sitaraman.
