Odisha to explore farm loan waiver proposal

By Sukanta Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, April 5: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said his government would explore the proposal to waive agricultural loans of farmers in the state.

“We’ll certainly examine it (proposal for waiving farm loan),” Mr Patnaik told reporters after a review meeting of party functionaries here.

Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy said the state government had been contemplating waiving farm loans.

“The matter will be decided soon,” he said.

The issue, Mr Maharathy said, was raised in the Wednesday’s cabinet meeting as the farmers in Odisha were too poor and frequently faced calamities like drought, floods and cyclones.

Stating that the BJD government was all out to support the farmers, Maharathy said that the state government had already been providing subsidy on purchase of power tillers and tractors.