Chennai: Proving the opposition charge that the state government has done precious little for farmers, wrong; the state government said that it exceeded the target of providing crop loans to farmers. And for the current fiscal it has proposed to disburse Rs 10,000 crore, which is about Rs 2,000 crore more than the sum distributed last year.
“Last year we have targeted to disburse Rs. 8,000 crore as crop loans to farmers across the state. But we gave away Rs 8,120 crore thus exceeding the target. For the current fiscal, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has announced to provide crop loans to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore,” cooperation minister Sellur K. Raju said.
The minister exuded confidence of achieving the new target set under the disbursement of crop loans to the beneficiaries.
Also for the first time, about 23 lakh farmers throughout the State have insured their crops raised in about 34 lakh acres, under the Prime Minister's Crop Insurance scheme.
According to Sellur Raju, the functioning of the cooperative banks have been fine tuned and they are now on par with the corporate banks.
“The deposits in the cooperative banks have increased to Rs 52,000 crore indicating the vibrancy of the banks and increasing patronage from the people,” the minister said. Enthused by this, the government is considering to introduce core banking system shortly.
