UP farmers get loan waivers of Rs 10

Lucknow: Munni Lal, a farmer in Hamirpur, may not have benefited from the loan waiver scheme of the Yogi Adityanath government but he has got his share of fame.

Munni Lal, a farmer from Umri village in Hamirpur, was among the beneficiaries of the loan waiver scheme who dared to walk up to the media at a government function and expose the bungling in the loan waiver scheme.

Within a few hours, Munni Lal turned into a ‘TV star’ and the face of all that is wrong in Uttar Pradesh. On Monday, UP minister of state Mannu Kori was distributing the cheques in Hamirpur to farmers under the loan waiver scheme.

Munni Lal received the cheque and when he saw it, he walked back to the stage and told the minister that he had a loan of Rs 50,000 and the government had given him merely Rs 215.

Another farmer, Babulal, also complained of receiving a loan waiver certificate of Rs 28,000 while he had a loan of Rs 50,000.

Some farmers were even more shocked to receive loan waiver certificates with amounts as low as Rs 10 and Rs 20 at the event.

The minister, Mannu Kori, who holds the portfolio of labour and employment exchange, said, “It might be due to some misprint in the certificate, the matter will be investigated and discrepancies will be corrected.”

The minister had distributed the certificates of farm loan waiver to 5,000 farmers and only 45 farmers who were called on stage to receive the certificates. Many of them complained of getting these low-value certificates.

Earlier, on September 8, similar incidents were reported from Barabanki district, where certificates were distributed to 5,000 farmers. Farmers in Barabanki had complained of receiving waiver certificates of Rs 12 and Rs 24.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Sunil Singh ‘Sajan’ said, “Issuing waiver certificates of Rs 10 is the worst kind of joke that the government could have done with our farmers. Already distressed, these farmers will teach the government a good lesson.”