Thirteen farmers in Uttara Kannada district, who have been struggling to get tractor loans sanctioned from nine months because of the alleged personal vengeance of their MLC against a tractor dealer, are now hopeful of early approval following a direction from the Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
The Hindu had published a report on June 14 on the farmers who were denied tractor loan because of the alleged personal vengeance of Srikant Ghotnekar, MLC. Taking note of the report, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar had moved a calling attention motion about the plight of farmers, during the recently concluded legislature session.
Responding to this, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the Registrar of Cooperative Societies had issued strict directions to Canara DCC Bank to process the application forms of eligible farmers without any discrimination and provide loans to them to get tractors and farm equipment of their choice from respective dealers.
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Interestingly, the Chief Minister’s written reply blames the delay for loan approval on the time needed for verification of applications. But there is no clarity on why even after nine months, the verification process was not completed.