Waived farm loans after 2018 win, will do it again:Bhupesh Baghel

RAIPUR: In a major announcement ahead of the next month's assembly polls, chief minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel on Monday said if his party Congress retains office in the state, loans of farmers will be written off.

Congress had made a similar promise ahead of the 2018 assembly polls to farmers, a move which contributed in the party recording a landslide win and ending the 15-year rule of BJP. The Baghel government had earlier said it fulfilled the 2018 promise and waived agriculture loans worth Rs 9,270 crore of 18.8 lakh farmers in the state.

Addressing a function in the Sakti assembly constituency with just a fortnight left for the first phase of polling, Baghel urged people to re-elect Congress to office so that the party's government writes off loans of farmers like it did after victory five years ago. The opposition BJP is yet to make any announcements for farmers, labourers, women or youths. So far, Congress has made four key announcements - caste census, procurement of 20 quintals of paddy per acre, houses for 17.5 lakh people and now a farm loan waiver. "We will give many more guarantees," Baghel said.