The Hindu : Front Page : Manmohan’s personal touch to loan waiver

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Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
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Manmohan’s personal touch to loan waiver

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: To give a healing touch to distressed farmers across the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will personally write to each beneficiary of his government’s loan waiver scheme.

In his letters, in regional languages, the Prime Minister will explain the scheme, to be implemented from June 30. This exercise will also be one way of reaching out to the aggrieved farmers, particularly when the general elections are less than a year away.

The Rs 60,000-crore debt waiver scheme for small and marginal farmers, announced by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the 2008-09 budget, was expanded to include more categories of farmers and the financial implications went up to Rs 71,680 crore.

The government took this major decision after thousands of farmers, mainly in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra, committed suicide, not being able to repay loans.

The revised scheme will cover over three crore small and marginal farmers and one crore ‘others’ who own less than five acres of land. It covers unirrigated land, where acreage is not made the sole criterion so as to bring more farmers within the ambit of the scheme.

Phased manner

The loans will be given by scheduled commercial banks, public sector banks including Regional Rural Banks and cooperative lending institutions. The Centre will refund them in a phased manner.

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