PNS|Hyderabad
The Telangana Finance Department has released Rs 9,654 crore under the agricultural loan waiver scheme to 18.79 lakh farmers and around 17.15 lakh people have received the loan waiver money in their bank accounts.
A high-level review meeting was held by Finance Minister Harish Rao with bankers at the secretariat on farm loan waivers along with Minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy, CS Shanti Kumari, Special CS Ramakrishna Rao and officials of banks. The meeting took many important decisions.
Meanwhile, the loans of about 1.6 lakh farmers have not been waived so far due to technical and other reasons.
Officials said that the problem of 1.6 lakh farmers not getting loan waiver money arose due to four reasons. They are bank accounts not working, closure of accounts, changing account numbers and the merger of banks.
The meeting suggested three solutions after discussions. They are identifying Rythu Bandhu bank accounts with the help of Aadhaar numbers and depositing the loan waiver money in those accounts. This will enable around one lakh more people to get loan waiver money.
Secondly, banks should collect data about the bank accounts of farmers with the help of NPCI and hand them over to the government. The finance department will release funds to them. It was decided to give money to about 50,000 people within three days.
Thirdly, the details of the remaining 16,000 people will be examined at the field level under the supervision of Collectors and district Agriculture Department officials. Loans will be waived based on that information.
Harish said that banks should set up a grievance cell at the state level to resolve loan waiver issues. An officer should be appointed and his phone number and e-mail ID should be communicated to the public.
Farmers are first approached at the bank level. If there is no solution there, the state level officer should be contacted and arrangements should be made to raise the issue. Similarly, a nodal officer will be appointed for the district on behalf of the agriculture department.
Banks should grant new loans to all farmers who have received loan waivers. Bank wise reviews should be done periodically on the progress.
“Statistics show that so far 35 per cent of those who have received loan waiver money have been sanctioned new loans. By the end of this month, a total of 18.79 lakh farmers need to complete their crop loan renewal. The Rs 9,654 crore waived by the government should be returned to the farmers in the form of new loans. Farmers should be made aware of the new loans with the help of the concerned Collector, MLAs and other stakeholders,” Harish said.
The Minister clarified that a high-level review will be held at the end of this month on loan waivers and renewal of crop loans. After that, a video conference was held with collectors on the issue of loan waiver in the respective districts and many orders were issued. All problems connected to loan waiver should be solved quickly and farmers should get loans.
“KCR is the only Chief Minister who has waived the loans of farmers twice in the country. Telangana is the only state and the BRS government is the only government that has done it. KCR’s wish is that every Rupee of loan waiver money should go to the farmer. Accordingly, the government has already waived loans up to Rs 1 lakh. The rest will be waived on priority,” Harish said.
