A five-member committee constituted to draft the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy, has decided to incorporate writing off farm loans taken from government-run cooperative banks till May 31, 2018. The coalition government has also decided to study the amount of loans taken from nationalised commercial banks.
The first meeting of the committee held here on Wednesday also decided to provide maternity benefit to women from BPL families and to increase old age pension. A monthly sum of ₹4,000 would be provided to each woman during her nine-month pregnancy.
The members circulated the first draft copy of the CMP with manifesto promises of both parties. The panel will have its next meeting on Monday.
Committee members
All committee members — former Union Minister and chairman of Congress manifesto committee M. Veerappa Moily, Revenue Minister R.V. Deshpande, Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Minister for Public Works H.D. Revanna, and Cooperation Minister Bandeppa Kashempur — arrived at the consensus on writing off farm loans and decided to incorporate it in the draft CMP.
The committee will submit the draft to the coordination committee panel headed by former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for approval. The committee has given 10 days’ time for drafting the CMP.
Punjab model
Addressing presspersons after the meeting, Mr. Moily said the committee held preliminary discussions on drafting the CMP.
It was decided to study the successful farm loan waiver implemented by the Congress government in Punjab.
Mr. Revanna said the committee agreed to write off loans borrowed from cooperative institutions, which would amount to ₹11,193 crore. About 22 lakh small and marginal farmers would benefit from it.
Mr. Moily said the committee would prepare the draft CMP by studying all Congress populist programmes launched by the previous Congress government, budget assurances of the last budget of Mr. Siddaramaiah, and election manifestos of both the Congress and JD(S). Based on the CMP, the Chief Minister would present the State budget next month.
The CMP would be implemented during the next five-year period, Mr. Moily said.
