Opposition members faced off with Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Parshottam Rupala, in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday over the issue of farm loan waivers, prompting Speaker Om Birla to intervene and assert that advances under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme are never written off.
Asking a supplementary question on KCC scheme, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member Supriya Sule asked Minister of State, L. Murugan, to reply in ‘yes or no’ terms on whether the government has any plans to waive off the loans given to farmers under KCC scheme.
Stepping in, Mr. Rupala said it was for the first time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended the scheme to fishermen and dairy farmers.
The Minister said the KCC was earlier confined only to agricultural farmers but it was being extended to the fisheries and dairy sector.
The main aim is to provide small farmers institutional credit up to ₹1.6 lakh without any collateral, he said, adding that if a farmer repays the loan promptly, he or she would get 3% interest subvention from the Central government and some State governments provide it too.
Ms. Sule and other Opposition members then charged that the Minister was not giving the answer to the specific question on loan waiver.
Reacting strongly, Mr. Rupala said the Opposition is only providing lip service and the actual welfare work for farmers is being done by Prime Minister Modi.
In the midst of Opposition protests, the Speaker tried to calm them down by saying that as per his knowledge, loans given under the KCC are never waived off.
Earlier, DMK members protested strongly when Mr. Murugan said the Modi government has been pursuing welfare schemes as per the BJP election manifesto while some political parties and their State governments are not doing so.
This remark prompted DMK MPs, led by their leader T.R. Baalu, to protest as the Minister hails from Tamil Nadu. Mr. Baalu accused the Minister of playing politics rather than properly replying to a bonafide question related to fishermen.
Mr. Birla then told the DMK members that the Minister has neither named any political party nor any State for them to get offended.
The Question Hour also witnessed loud protests from Trinamool Congress members when Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Pratima Bhoumik, responding to another query, told the House that Ministers of Bengal government “don’t take their calls if they are called 10 times”.
The Minister was responding to a question from BJP member from West Bengal, S. S. Ahluwalia, who had asked about implementation of a scheme to skill youth. When Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that it has become “a habit” in Bengal not to take calls or listen, Trinamool members protested loudly.
