Politics

90 percent farmers have got benefit of loan waiver in Maharashtra: Raosaheb Danve

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Nagpur | Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve has claimed that nearly 90 percent farmers in the state have got the benefit of the government’s loan waiver announced last year.

His statement came after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray claimed at a rally in Pandharpur town of Solapur district on Monday that benefits of the government’s crop insurance and debt waiver scheme have not reached cultivators.

The state government led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had in June 2017 unveiled a mega Rs 34,022 crore farm loan waiver scheme that will see debt of up to Rs 1.5 lakh per farmer being written off. “Loan waivers are going on accordingly. Ninety percent farmers have got the benefit of loan waiver in Maharashtra and the process is still underway in the state,” Danve told reporters in Nagpur on Monday evening.

He said wheat was being distributed at Rs 2 per kg and rice at Rs 3 per kg in the state’s 14 districts hit by farmer suicides. “The government has undertaken various schemes to stop farmer suicides in the state,” the BJP chief said. To a query on possible seat-sharing with the Shiv Sena for the next year’s Lok Sabha polls, he said, “So far we have not started talks with the Sena, but the talks may take place in future.”

During his rally on Monday, Thackeray did not give any indication of aligning with the BJP for elections in future. Danve claimed that people want the two saffron parties to stay together and jointly contest the upcoming polls. The Sena is currently an ally of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

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Lanka Prez Sirisena meets party organisers, hints 2019 may be election year

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Colombo | Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has held a meeting with his party’s electoral organisers, fuelling speculation that the SLPF Chairman, who was recently at the centre of an unprecedented political standoff, may be hoping for a possible presidential re-run in 2019.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLPF) organisers were summoned on Monday for the special meeting at the President’s house and were briefed about the party’s future plans and restructuring activities. “We discussed the party’s future reform drive which will be kick started in January,” said party’s general secretary Rohana Laxman. “The president told the organisers that they need to be dedicated to the reform programme,” Laxman said.

Sirisena could call a snap presidential election after January 8 next year. It was not clear if the organisers’ meeting was to gear the party for the eventuality of a snap presidential poll.

Sri Lanka’s English daily ‘Daily News’, however, reported that Sirisena instructed the SLFP electoral organisers to get ready for an “election year”, stating that the provincial and presidential elections would be held next year. He had also indicated the possibility of even a general election next year, it said. By schedule the next presidential election must be called by November 2019 and held before January 2020.

President Sirisena, who is also the SLFP Chairman, founfd himself at the centre of an unprecedented political and constitutional crisis after he took a controversial decision and sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in an alleged illegal power grab and replaced him with ex-strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa was defeated by Sirisena with Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) support in the 2015 presidential election, ending Rajapaksa’s 10-year rule.

However, after 3 years of bitter opposition, Rajapaksa and Sirisena patched up and Sirisena ditched Wickremesinghe, the man who elevated him to become the president. Rajapaksa has formed his own party and did well in the local elections held early this year by defeating both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe’s parties.

Rajapaksa wants a snap parliamentary election well ahead of its schedule in August 2020 as he is confident of winning it. He is constitutionally barred from running for president again.

Sirisena’s dissolution of parliament to call for a snap parliamentary election for January 5 next year was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. The court ruling forced him to restore Wickremesinghe in office after compelling Rajapaksa to resign who failed to prove his majority in Parliament.

The provincial polls are due in the country. They have been held back due to legal issues as amendments are needed to hold them under a new system of a hybrid first-past-the-post and proportional representation systems.

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