Tamil Nadu Minister for Co-operation I. Periyasamy on Friday announced the waiver of ₹501.69 crore in farm loans in Salem and Namakkal districts.
Making a suo motu statement in the Assembly, he said there were irregularities in the two districts. But Chief Minister M.K. Stalin agreed to treat them as a special case after a delegation of farmers met him and made the request. “The farmers of the two districts will also get crop loan in the current year.”
He explained that sorghum and cassava had been cultivated in most parts of Salem and Namakkal. But the farmers had borrowed by claiming that they had grown turmeric and banana because the loan amount for sorghum and cassava per acre was lower. “The irregularities were found during a field survey. Though such irregularities were reported in other districts on a small scale, it was 97% in these two districts. But the government has directed the co-operative societies to prevent such practices in future,” he said.
Mr. Periyasamy said the crop loan waiver was announced in January, 2021, and 1,11,833 farmers had received waiver certificates and 51,017 could not do so. “The government could not fix the loan amount for the current year, and there is a lull in farming,” he said.
