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Telangana finalising guidelines for crop loan waiver scheme

By, Hyderabad
Jul 03, 2024 07:48 AM IST

Waiver of crop loans of farmers up to ₹2 lakh was one of the six guarantees announced by the Congress before the November 30 assembly elections in the state and was incorporated in the party manifesto.

The Congress government in Telangana is finalising guidelines for the implementation of crop loan waiver scheme, aimed at waiving all kinds of crop loan arrears of farmers up to 2 lakh at one go, people familiar with the matter said.

The chief minister announced that the state government was working out the plan of action for mobilisation of finances for the crop loan waiver and the guidelines would be framed by the first week of July. (PTI)
The chief minister announced that the state government was working out the plan of action for mobilisation of finances for the crop loan waiver and the guidelines would be framed by the first week of July. (PTI)

“The guidelines will be released in a day or two. We are taking all precautions to ensure that no farmer is left out in the implementation of the scheme,” a state government official said.

Waiver of crop loans of farmers up to 2 lakh was one of the six guarantees announced by the Congress before the November 30 assembly elections in the state and was incorporated in the party manifesto.

The state cabinet, which met under the leadership of chief minister A Revanth Reddy on June 21, approved the crop loan waiver scheme. After the meeting, he announced that the loan waiver, which would cause a burden of over 31,000 crore on the state exchequer, will be implemented by all means before August 15.

The chief minister announced that the state government was working out the plan of action for mobilisation of finances for the crop loan waiver and the guidelines would be framed by the first week of July.

According to the official quoted above, crop loans taken by farmers from nationalised banks and cooperative banks in the last five years would be waived. The cut-off date for the implementation of the scheme, however, would be December 9, 2023.

“Thus, crop loans obtained by the farmers between December 11, 2018 to December 9, 2023 would be waived. The scheme is not applicable to those who obtained loans after the Congress came to power in December 2023,” he said.

While the loans taken by the farmers for horticulture crops also would be waived, those farmers who had taken loans by mortgaging gold would not be eligible for the loan waiver scheme. “Secondly, only short-term loans obtained by farmers for purchasing inputs for raising crops would be waived, but not long-term loans,” the official said.

The state government will follow the guidelines prepared by the State Level Bankers Committee in identifying the real beneficiaries of crop loan waiver scheme, based on the pattadar passbooks (land title deeds) pledged by them with the banks.

The scheme would be made applicable to only one outstanding crop loan from each family, up to the maximum limit of 2 lakh, including principal and interest.

The beneficiaries are identified by panchayat extension officers of their respective gram panchayats based on the ration cards, under the supervision of tehsildars, mandal (block) parishad development officers and mandal agriculture officers.

The details of the beneficiaries would be verified by the bankers from whom they had obtained loans. The list of beneficiaries from each block would be sent to the district collector, who scrutinises them to weed out duplicate beneficiaries and those who had taken loans using fake passbooks.

Finally, district cooperative auditors and district cooperative central bank officials and commercial bank authorities would do the final check and send the details to the state agriculture department.

The details of the beneficiaries would be uploaded on the department portal and the lists of the beneficiaries would be displayed at the gram panchayat offices and also banks, so that if there are any objections in the lists, they can be considered for verification.

“After the completion of the exercise, the beneficiaries would be intimated about the loan waiver. The entire process would be completed by August 15,” the official added.

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