BHOPAL: With an eye on Lok Sabha elections, which is less than three months away, the Kamal Nath government is focused on speedy implementation of the farmers’ loan waiver promise. In Madhya Pradesh , most of the 29 Lok Sabha seats are largely rural with a district headquarter town. Even in constituencies like Indore, Bhopal , Gwalior or Jabalpur there are rural assembly segments.Chief minister Kamal Nath while launching the Jai Kisan Wrin Mukti Yojana on Tuesday afternoon said that 70% population of the state are dependent on agriculture.He mentioned that not just farmers but agrarian labourers, grocery shops in the villages and even the big markets of Bhopal and Indore benefit with a bumper harvest and good agricultural income. In pure electoral statistics, 70% of voters in the state are from agricultural sector and another 10% from allied sectors.Congress government’s Jai Kisan Wrin Mukti Yojana started with 14 farmers filling their forms and applications for the Rs 2 lakh crop loan waiver in the presence of the chief minister on Tuesday afternoon. Chief minister Nath claimed that by February 5, farmers will complete filling their application forms for loan waiver and 55 lakh agrarians will benefit from the scheme. Kamal Nath also explained that the total burden of Rs 50,000 crore on the state exchequer will be the government’s “investment” to increase the purchasing power of farmers and strengthen the state’s economy.But here comes the real dilemma: Kamal Nath government is racing against time before model code of conduct is announced for the Lok Sabha polls and the state coffers are empty. The government is running on borrowed loan which is far less than the required Rs 50,000 crore needed to implement the scheme.However, the chief minister is still confident of implementation. Addressing reporters after the scheme launch, he said: “For five months we studied how to implement the loan waiver scheme. It is true that the state treasury has been left empty by the BJP. Even the BJP has admitted there is no money. But just not the loan waiver, we are working on many other schemes. There is no model code of conduct till application forms for the loan waiver are filled.”The question is, that forms will be filled but there is no deadline when the Rs 2 lakh loan waiver reach the banks. Under such circumstances, will it help the Congress with farmers filling loan waiver application forms.State Congress media committee chairperson Shobha Oza explained, “With the new Congress government, people in Madhya Pradesh have realised that if there is a will, there is a way. The last BJP government only made promises but delivered little. But chief minister Kamal Nath has showed determination and dedication to deliver promises made in the Vachan Patra party manifesto. Remember, the first decision he took within two hours of his swearing-in was loan waiver. People just don’t have hope, now they have trust. This confidence on the new government will help us and Congress will get more than 20 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats.”

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