LUCKNOW: She may have given support to Congress in Madhya Pradesh to form government but Mayawati is letting go of no opportunity to attack the party. During her birthday celebrations on Tuesday, the BSP chief said that the loan waiver announced by Congress in the three states where it recently came to power would not benefit those who needed help most.With an eye on the upcoming general elections, the former UP chief minister spent a considerable part of her birthday address on farmers, whose recent protests against state and central policies have become a cause of worry for the ruling BJP in the Centre. BSP’s alliance partner in UP, Samajwadi Party , has also been batting for farmers’ rights in the recent past.“Finger are already being pointed at the newly formed Congress governments. The first question about its intentions is why it set a deadline of March 31, 2018, for loan waivers and not December 17, 2018, when its government was formed,” she said, adding that since loans of only up to Rs 2 lakh were being waived off, there would be no real benefit to farmers.“Landless farmers and small farmers are reeling most under heavy loans. Due to stringent conditions for giving loans, these farmers take fewer loans from government and cooperative banks and 70% loans are taken on high rates of interest from moneylenders,” she added, warning Congress that “false promises and jumlas” were no longer going to help a political party be successful.Asking the government to waive off entire loans, Mayawati said that the government should come out with a policy that would ensure that farmers do not need to borrow money in the future. She also demanded that a policy be framed to waive off loans of Dalits, tribals, backwards, Muslims and other religious minorities who were not farmers but were still forced to take loans at high rates of interest.

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