Despite huge claims by the government, the fact remains that many banks have failed to reach the target of loan disbursement for farming community and there are multiple reasons for that.
Lack of sufficient staff in many bank branches, increasing work stress and sudden spurt in work with deadlines are stated to be some of the reasons for not reaching the target. According to sources, as against the target of Rs. 1,185 crore for kharif, which was almost over, the banks were able to disburse only Rs. 902 crore.
It was estimated that about 2.4 lakh farmers were benefitted with the loaning process. For rabi, a target of Rs. 572 crore was fixed by the government.
“Take the case of Medak branch of SBH. There are about 18,500 farm loan accounts. The bankers were asked to reach the target by fixing a date. It was possible only to process 20 to 30, at the best 40, accounts per day. How can the administration expect us and reach target? Is it humanly possible? How many days will it take to address the total accounts even if we clear 100 accounts per day?” asked a bank official on condition of anonymity.
“The kharif loan season was supposed to commence in May but it commenced in October. It was not possible to reach targets with so many constraints,” said the bank officer. Medak, Adilabad and Ragna Reddy district bankers were reportedly facing some other peculiar problem limited to only these districts.
As farm loan rescheduling was announced by the RBI based on the drought conditions, the bankers have to turn the existing loan account to term loan and issue new accounts for the same farmers here, which is a lengthy process again.
