Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Loan waiver

The appraisal of the loan waiver scheme (May 24) is not reassuring. The motto seems to be pleasing big farmers and silencing the Opposition on the extent of reach of such a waiver.

Waiver will have a crippling effect on the banking system as farmers lose discipline towards the lending system. The government could instead have imbibed new technology to make farming less dependent on the monsoon and infused more money into the farming system. The nation would regret this move as it only pioneers towards such waivers for other sectors as well.

Ch. Abhishek,

Hyderabad

R. Thirunarayanan,

Chiambaram (T.N.)

The aam admi category is squirming under galloping inflation and rising food prices. (The cartoon says it all). The UPA has now come out with an increased loan waiver package to meet the demands from various quarters. While Finance Minister P. Chidambaram made it clear that the loans of the small and marginal farmers would be completely waived, he has rejected the Petroleum Ministry’s plea for reduction or abolition of excise duty on petrol and diesel. Would it be bad economics to put on hold the entire farm loan waiver package and utilise the amount to tackle the oil price increase?

Col. C.V. Venugopalan (Retd.),

Palakkad (Kerala)

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