The UPA government?s big-ticket loan waiver sop for farmers, announced in the Budget last month, may well be up for a significant upgrade that may not only raise the number of beneficiaries but also increase the burden on the state exchequer.

In a move that looked orchestrated, Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Congress party and projected Prime Minister of the future, on Thursday, suggested that the government liberalise the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver by raising the limit of landholding and doing away with the single cut-off date of March last year, while participating in the discussion on the General Budget in the Lok Sabha.

It is a foregone conclusion, Congress circles affirmed, that finance minister P Chidambaram will now suitably tweak the loan waiver package to include in its ambit dryland farmers of Vidarbha and Bundelkhand, who were sufferers but had been left out as they have land holdings larger than the 2-hectare limit.

The extent of liability to the government, should it go ahead and include them in the package, was still unclear, party circles said. The plight of Bundelkhand farmers, who were being driven to suicide, had come to the limelight after Rahul Gandhi paid a highly publicised visit to the region sometime back.

Party circles recalled the young party general secretary?s suggestion recently to the Prime Minister to bring all districts in the country under the NREGS, which was immediately implemented by the Centre.

In his eleven minute speech in the Lok Sabha, the young Gandhi suggested that there should not be one landholding ceiling to choose farmers whose loans the government proposes to waive, nor should there be a single cut-off date–March 31, 2007–for the loan waiver scheme. Pointing out that there were multi-crop cycles in the country, he maintained that the cut-off date should be made variable for different regions to maximise coverage of affected farmers.

Amidst repeated applause from the treasury benches, Gandhi also suggested that fund transfer in all the people-centric programmes of the government be linked to achieving right to information (RTI) and social audit objectives.

?I humbly request the finance minister to consider budgetary provisions and incentives to encourage states to build self-help group networks,? he said.

Later explaining rationale for his suggestions the young leader said, the current ceiling of two hectares for eligible farmers does not account for land productivity and excludes deserving farmers in poorly irrigated areas.

Specifically referring to dry land areas like Vidarbha and Bundelkhand areas, Gandhi said, ?Perhaps, we could consider making the land ceiling variable based upon land productivity.?