Seemandhra tells farmers to repay bank, will reimburse later
Picture used for representational purpose. (photo: DC/File)
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government has almost given up on the RBI regarding rescheduling of crop loans. Agriculture minister P. Pulla Rao said on Wednesday, “As per RBI’s attitude, it is 100 per cent not willing to allow rescheduling of loans.”
He said that instead of waiting for reschedulement, farmers who had the capacity to repay the loans should do so to get fresh loans and the government would reimburse them Rs 1.5 lakh.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday at the Secretariat, Mr Rao said that the government was making alternative arrangements to pay the banks. He also said that earlier the government had decided to pay back the farmers within three months but now it had been reduced to two months.
The Agriculture minister said that the RBI had earlier favoured rescheduling of crop loans but had later changed its stand. He said that while the state government was talking about cyclone and drought-affected mandals, the RBI was talking about paddy yields.
To a question he said that the government had no information about banks freezing farmers’ accounts and added that if any complaints were received, the government would give directions to the banks. He added that the government had not finalised the committee for mobilisation of additional resources.
Mr Rao also said that the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development had sanctioned Rs 250 crore for construction of godowns in the state and had asked for proposals within 15 days. District officials have been instructed to send the proposals immediately. He added that till June, the Centre had supplied 2.59 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers out of 3.76 lakh metric tonnes.
( Source : dc )
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