Although government has issued loan eligibility cards to 28,000 tenant farmers in SPSR Nellore district, banks have sanctioned loans to only 6,000 of them and released loans to only 2,400 so far.

This came to light during the district-level consultative committee (bankers) meeting held here on Thursday.

Finance minister Mr Anam Ramanarayana Reddy and district in-charge minister Mr Pithani Sathyanarayana, who were present in the meeting, expressed surprise over the tardy progress. Mr Ramanara-yana Reddy questioned the rationale behind banker’s reluctance to sanction loans, reminding them that the decision over financial support to tenant farmers was taken at the state level and had the approval of all bankers.

“We feel the number of 28,000 itself is very low and the purpose of bringing a special legislation to extend financial aid to tenant farmers itself will be defeated if they are not given loans. Please provide loans to all the eligible,” Mr Ramanarayana Reddy asked the bankers.

Bankers said that absence of proper documents and pending loans from the original landholders were some of the reasons for not achieving the target.

Referring to Union government directions to all banks to disburse agricultural loans in a big way before December 31, bankers said they had mobilised applications through a special drive between December 1 and 15 and would release the loans as soon as possible.

Minister Pithani Sathyanarayana pulled up agriculture officers for their failure to take an active role in the process. Officials claimed that they had submitted lists of farmers who have not borrowed loans to the banks.

Mr Ramanarayana Reddy stressed the need to disburse loans to self-help groups, pointing to 50 per cent of the target achieved so far although only three months were left for the closure of the financial year. Referring to recent meeting of bankers of southern states at Bengaluru where the Union finance minister had pointed to the poor performance of bankers with respect to educational loans in AP, Mr Ramana-rayana Reddy said the AP government’s aid to the fee reimbursement scheme to the extent of Rs 3,500 crore, had reduced the burden on banks. “In this backdrop, banks should sanction loans to the agriculture sector and SHGs liberally,” Mr Rama-narayana Reddy said.

MLC Vakati Narayana Reddy, district collector B. Sreedhar, joint-collector Saurabh Gaur and oficials from various banks were present among others.