Launching the crop loan waiver scheme, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Saturday presented the waiver certificates to nine farmers at the Secretariat in Chennai.
On February 5, he had announced that farm loans, to the tune of ₹12,110.74 crore, availed from cooperative institutions by 16,43,347 farmers in Tamil Nadu would be waived. He made the suo motu announcement in the Assembly under Rule 110 of the House.
An official release cited that a government order was issued by the Food, Co-operation and Consumer Protection Department on February 8, stating that short-term crop loans of 16.43 lakh farmers would be waived and funds would be transferred to the co-operative banks.
While the pandemic affected the economy, the farmers also suffered heavy losses due to the two cyclones — Nivar and Burevi — in Tamil Nadu, resulting in farmers’ associations demanding loan waiver.
The guidelines released said that the loans, interest and any penalty pending until January 31 would be waived along with collaterals, and no action should be taken to retrieve the loans. Farmers who receive the waivers would be eligible to apply for new loans.
Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, Minister for Co-operation Sellur K. Raju, Higher Education and Agriculture Minister K.P. Anbalagan and other officials were present.
Helpline launched
Mr. Palaniswami also launched an ‘Integrated and inclusive public grievance CM helpline management system’, at the Secretariat in Chennai.
People can either use the toll free number, 1100, to register grievances round-the-clock or the websites CMHelpline.tnega.org and cmhelpline@tn.gov.in , an official release said.
An app, CMhelpline Citizen, can also be used for the purpose. Besides, people can reach out to the government via @cmhelpine_tn on Twitter and CM-Helpline TN on Facebook.
The release added that Aadhaar cards and ration cards were essential to get the grievances addressed.
The introduction of the system was first announced by Mr. Palaniswami in a suo motu statement in the Assembly on September 15 last year.
The integrated grievance reddressal system has been set up to ensure that people do not have to go to various departments, separately, to get their problems addressed, as is the case now.
“Each department has separate grievance addressal centres and websites. At the district level, people’s grievances are being heard on Mondays every week, on Manu Needhi day every month, farmers’ and fishermen’s grievance addressal days, Amma Scheme grievance addressal days and the pensioners grievance addressal days. At the State level, the CM’s separate division and Amma Centres are being run for the purpose. A person is forced to go to various departments to get issues addressed. Identical requests are being received at the district and the State level. Therefore, all grievance addressal centres have been brought under one single set up,” the release said.
The State government will spend ₹69.21 crore to implement the system.
Mr. Palaniswami inaugurated the CM Helpline Call Center, built at a cost of ₹12.78 crore, on Rajiv Gandhi Salai in Sholinganallur, Chennai. It can house 100 people.
“Those seeking employment will be given skill development coaching. The decisiona taken on petitions received from the people — whether it has been accepted, rejected or whetever its current status may be — will be notified via SMS. The Chief Minister will look into the petitions, along with the Chief Secretary, Secretaries of various departments, department heads and Collectors, within a given time frame,” the official release said.
