VIJAYAWADA: The state government is yet to pay Rs 13,000 crore towards farmer loan waiver, which is more than 50 per cent of the amount announced by the government. The government has promised to waive Rs 24,000 crore of farmers’ loans. The Telugu Desam has promised complete loan waiver of the farmers during the elections. After coming to power, the TD government has said that it will waive the loans up to Rs 1.5 lakh on the basis of scale of finance in five equal instalments.
So far, the government has paid Rs 11,017 crore towards farmer loan waiver to more than 60 lakh accounts in two instalments. The third instalment of the farmer loan waiver is expected to be released in the month of June itself, according to the sources in finance ministry. The government has also announced that those who were having loans up to Rs 50,000 will be waived with one-time settlement.
The government has claimed that around 25.54 lakh farmers’ accounts have received one-time settlement. The remaining of about 35.56 lakh farmers who were having more than Rs 50,000 and up to Rs 1.5 lakh are being paid in five instalments. Meanwhile, over 8.54 lakh complaints were received from the farmers that they have not received the loan waiver amount.
Vice-chairman of Andhra Pradesh Planning Commission C. Kutumba Rao has said that more than 90 per cent of the complaints were positively resolved to the farmers. He also denied the allegations of the opposition parties that because of the instalment payments of the loan waiver, the farmers are not being able to get fresh loans. He said more than 85 per cent of the loans were rescheduled and farmers are getting fresh loans.
He said Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh governments are now studying the Andhra Pradesh model of loan waiver to implement the same in their states. This year, as the monsoon is predicted to be normal, the government pins high hopes on agriculture sector. A meeting with state-level bankers has been scheduled on June 16 to fix the kharif loan target. “Farmers are already queuing up to the banks as agriculture works have kicked off with good rains and we are speaking to the bankers to provide sufficient loans to all eligible farmers,” he said.
