Shinde, Pawar promise aid

AKLUJ (SOLAPUR): In a soft launch of the Congress-NCP''s election campaign for the assembly polls, chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar held out a number of sops for the farmers in the state.
They were speaking at a ceremony held at Akluj, the hometown of deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, to felicitate him on his 61st birthday.A farmers meet (mahashetkari melava) was organised on the occasion,where a number of state ministers and MLAs were present.
The demand for sops to farmers was first made by NCP MLA from Pandharpur Sudhakar Parichak,who noted that the farmers in the state were unable to repay their agricultural loans owning to the drought in parts of Maharashtra for the last three years. He demanded that loans with a three-year repayment period be converted to a five-year period.
Shinde said the state and the Centre had a comprehensive relief package on the cards to help drought-hit farmers.
Noting that though the monsoons had arrived this year, Shinde said the farmers were unable to get agricultural loans from institutions like NABARD, since they already had outstanding loans and interests. Shinde suggested that the Centre repay the interest on the farmers'' loans.
Calling on a need to focus on the 70 per cent population in the country which was engaged in agriculture, Sharad Pawar said this would be in the interest of national development.
Pawar said that the UPA government would raise the limit of the total amount of loans given to farmers from the present Rs 75,000 crore per annum to twice the amount in the next three years. The Centre was working on raising the same with the help of institutions like the RBI and NABARD. "The Centre would also consider steps to stop the import of agricultural produce to ensure that our farmers get proper prices for their produce," Pawar said.