The announcement of the State government to waive farmers’ crop loans up to ₹50,000 from cooperative banks is expected to help around 1.80 lakh farmers of the district.
According to officials of DCC bank, 1.29 lakh farmers have taken loans below ₹50,000 and would get the full benefit of the scheme. The farmers who have taken loans till June 20 from cooperative banks would get the benefit. The farmers could also take more loans after this account is settled, the officials said.
“Those who have taken loans exceeding ₹50,000 would get the benefit of loan waiver, however they will have to clear the remaining amount. After repayment, they are also entitled to borrow more loans for agricultural purposes,” the officials said.
The DCC bank has a total of 28 branches and 269 cooperatives banks in the district. These have together disbursed loans to the tune of ₹828.48 crore, of which ₹697.38 crore would be waived.
Officials said those who have promptly repaid their loan would not get any benefits of the scheme. This has apparently irked farmers who said that had they known about the loan waiver, they too would have not repaid the loan. These farmers said the government should extend similar benefits where they should be given a ₹50,000 loan for free.
Many are also angry over the Union government’s decision not to waive off loans borrowed from nationalised banks. The farmers say that though they were expecting a complete loan waiver from the State government, atleast it had done something within its limit, unlike the Union government, which has done nothing to help.
“The total agriculture loan stands at around ₹52,000 crore in the State. Of this, over ₹42,000 crore was given by nationalised banks that function directly under Union government. When the major share is of nationalised banks, the Union government must also extend the benefits to farmers like the State has done. It is not fair that while a small section of the farming community gets loan waivers, a large section remains deprived of it,” Arvind Kulkarni, district general secretary, Akhanda Karnataka Raita Sangha, said.
