Farmers across the country will get Zero percent loan : Gadkari

Bhopal. BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Sunday announced that Farmers across the country will get agricultural loans at zero per cent interest rate if the BJP is voted to power at the Centre after the 2014 general elections.
Addressing ‘Atal Kisan Mahapanchayat’ (mega-gathering of farmers) organised by BJP in Bhopal, Gadkari said that BJP government in Madhya Pradesh had already decided to give zero-interest loans to farmers, with (retrospective) effect from April 1 this year, and “I do not see any reason why this cannot be emulated at the Centre if the NDA comes to power”.
Terming the UPA government as “enemy of farmers”, he said it was incapable of taking any pro-farmers decision.
Gadkari praised Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the fact that state had clocked 18 per cent growh in agriculture, saying that it was unparallelled in the country.
The financial condition of our farmers is far from satisfactory. Farmers are committing suicide under the burden of loans. In Maharashtra, farmers pay a whopping 14% interest on the loans they take to grow crops to feed the nation,” Gadkari said. In Uttar Pradesh, farmers pay the same 13 to 14% interest rate. At present, soil and mud for gardens sell at a higher price than grains. I know of places where ‘mitti (soil)’ sells at Rs 20 a kg. Tomatoes are cheap but sauce is expensive, oranges sell cheap but juice in tetra packs are highly priced, wheat sells cheap but sliced bread is exorbitant. This only shows the exploitation and injustice to farmers,” the BJP national president said.
The purpose of Mahapanchayat was to felicitate the Chief Minister for his decision to give zero-interest loans to farmers, and to ask the Centre to roll back the hike in fertiliser prices, Gadkari said.