Farmers greet waiver with scepticism, joy, anger
The Rs 60,000-crore loan waiver for small farmers has not exactly sent farming communities in the country into transports of joy, a dipstick survey by Business Standard correspondents, each of whom interviewed 25 to 30 farmers across India, shows. Some farmers, notably in Orissa, are moderately happy to have debts of Rs 5,000 written off. Others who benefit from a write-off of as much as Rs 77,000 are worried about how much they'll have to bribe to access the waiver. And there is bitterness among farmers who have been left out of the bounty owing to the size of their land-holdings