Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Sunday said that it would waive all crop loans of farmers in Odisha if it came to power in the state in the next elections.

"People now want the BJP to come to power both at the Centre and in the state. The BJP will waive the crop loans once it comes to power in the state," said Union petroleum and skill development minister Dharmendra Pradhan while addressing a farmers' convention at the state BJP headquarters on Sunday.

Coming down heavily on the Naveen Patnaik government for its "anti-farmer" attitude, Pradhan said: "The government has been in deep slumber after it had announced a bonus of Rs 100 to the farmers at Bargarh a couple of years ago."

Stating that BJP-ruled state Chhattisgarh was paying bonus to farmers and the governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra had waived crop loans, Pradhan wanted to know why the Odisha government would not do the same.

Pradhan said that the Modi government was fulfilling with responsibility the promises the party had made during the 2014 elections for the development of farmers. Very soon, a bill would be brought to enable the share croppers to get loan. But the responsibility of identification of share croppers lies with the state government. "The state should not oppose it like it did in case of Ayushman Yojana," he said.

The Union minister said that nominal and small farmers and share croppers were being exploited by the money lenders and money deposit collection companies as they were unable to get institutional credit. This was the major reason for farmers' suicide. "The share croppers will be benefited through the proposed bill to be brought by the central government," he said.

Pradhan claimed that the Union government had hiked the minimum support price (MSP) of the paddy by one and half times. "It has enhanced the MSP to Rs 1,750 per quintal as against the production cost of Rs 1,166 per quintal," he said.

Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram thanked Modi for enhancing the MSP of paddy by Rs 200 a quintal. "Modi ji is working towards doubling the income of the farming community," he said.

However, BJD spokeperson Sasmit Patra said: "BJP is making false promise of waiving crop loan to hoodwink the people. It had promised in 2014 to grant special-category state status to Odisha. But it kept silent when it came to power at the Centre."