SC rejects plea against waiver of farm loan

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea questioning the government's decision to write off farmers' bank loans worth Rs 600 billion.A bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran said the court would not delve into the issues related to the government policies.Finance Minister P Chidambaram as part of his budget presented on February 29 announced the move to provide relief to farmers from the debt burden that has forced many of them to commit suicide.Questioning the rationality of the loan waiver scheme, petitioner M L Sharma sought relief for the farmers who had taken loans from private banks or individual moneylenders.Sharma on Monday argued that the scheme "benefited only those dishonest farmers, who did not pay the loans, but did not provide any relief to honest farmers who had already cleared their dues to the banks."Besides seeking a direction to the government to provide relief to the farmers from the debt trap of the private moneylenders as well, the petition also questioned the government's figure of Rs 600 billion that would be written off as unrecoverable loans to the poor farmers.Sharma sought to know the basis on which the government had arrived at the figure.
Posted On Tuesday, April 08, 2008
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