Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has taken umbrage over the reported statement of BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa that the Union government cannot waive farm loans borrowed by farmers from nationalised banks.
“Mr. Yeddyurappa is anti-farmer. What did he say earlier? He wanted the State government to waive farm loans borrowed from cooperative banks and only after that he would put pressure on the Union government to waive farm loans given by nationalised banks. Now, we have taken a decision of waiving farm loans. Who should take the decision of waiving farm loans taken from nationalised and regional rural banks? You ask him what is that he is going to do,” the Chief Minister told presspersons at the MSPL airport in Ginigera during a brief technical halt on Thursday.
Mr. Siddaramaiah was on his way to Kudalasangama to participate in a Congress convention.
Saying that he will not attend the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in New Delhi on July 1, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that several States anticipated, to start with, loss of tax revenue to the State exchequer with the GST coming into effect. “At the GST Council meeting, all the States had unanimously pleaded to the Union government to compensate the loss of tax revenue for a period of five years,” he said.
On reports that Congress leader A.H. Vishwanath will be joining the JD(S), Mr. Siddaramaiah said, “Who has prevented him (Mr. Vishwanath)? A single person quitting the party will not have any impact on the Congress — a party with over 130 years of history.”
On Cabinet expansion, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that he was yet to discuss the issue with the party high command and did not wish to elaborate.
He also did not wish to comment on the Iftar hosted by Vishwesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Mutt.
