He said there were no figures available for the loans taken by farmers from the private moneylenders, and as such a waiver in such cases was not possible.

Bansal said that of the loan amount waived, around Rs 18000 crore has been taken from the public sector banks, Rs 3000 crore from the private sector banks and Rs 7000 crore from regional agricultural banks.

As regards the problem of moneylenders, he said the chief ministers of different states should get together and approach the Centre for finding a solution to this problem.

Chidambaram had announced a waiver of all loans taken before March 31, 2007 and those that were overdue on December 31, 2007. For the farmers having five acres of land or less, it would be a complete loan waiver, while for those having bigger farms, 25 per cent of the amount would be waived off.

"The decision to waive the loans was not something done instantly. The Centre had been working on different schemes for the past six to eight months. Finally this solution was found feasible. The step was not taken keeping the Lok Sabha elections in mind. Good economics and good politics go hand in hand. Politics should not be at the cost of economics. If some decisions generate benefit for us in the elections, there is no harm in it," said Bansal.

The waiver would facilitate farmers in getting loans. As many as 30 per cent of farmers in Punjab have land holdings of 5 acres or less, and the waiver would be of immense benefit to them.

Talking about the allocation in the Budget for Chandigarh, he said that the city would never be short of funds.