Minister for Cooperation H.S. Mahadeva Prasad on Tuesday said farmers who are members of co-operative societies will get an enhanced crop loan this financial year, fulfilling one of their major demands.
The Minister told presspersons that last year the societies had disbursed Rs. 6,000 crore and this fiscal year it had been decided to raise the amount to Rs. 7,000 crore. Of this, he said National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the State government would fund Rs. 3,500 crore each and the same would be released to the district co-operative banks, depending upon the recovery made by each bank.
Mr. Prasad said that with the waiver of certain loans by the Siddaramaiah government recently, farmers would get an additional 25 per cent loan. But, it would be disbursed to farmers depending upon the monsoon condition. The process of loan disbursement would continue up to October. He said the government had made a budgetary allocation of Rs. 1,645 crore and this amount would be released this month itself.
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The loan waiver would benefit 15 lakh farmers and 6.5 lakh of them had already benefitted. Asked if there was any delay in giving loans to farmers, he said the government had already disbursed Rs. 705 crore to them during the last three months for which it had borrowed Rs. 500 crore from Karnataka Apex Co-operative Bank Ltd.
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The Minister said elections to more than 4,000 co-operative societies across the State would be held on September 25.
Asked about the demand by the former Railway Minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the Rs. 102-crore alleged irregularities in Amanath Co-operative Bank, the Minister said there was no need for it as the Criminal Investigation Department and the Co-operation Department had inquired into it.
The Reserve Bank of India had given six months’ time to take a decision on reviving the bank, the Minister said.