Glitches emerge in crop loan waiver scheme
As per the scheme, the government will waive crop loan only to one member in a family and that too up to `1 lakh
Khammam: Grouping of family accounts for implementing crop-loan waiver of up to `50,000 in the second phase from August 15 to 31 has become a stupendous task for agriculture department officials.
As per the scheme, the government will waive crop loan only to one member in a family and that too up to `1 lakh. In the first phase, loans of farmers below `25, 000 were waived while in the second phase to the extent of `50,000. The grouping of family accounts, which were eligible under the second phase, is currently underway. On its completion, the government is likely to announce the next phase. The scheme benefits will be given to only one person in a family from among husband, wife, unmarried daughters or unmarried sons.
It is common among farmers to divide land between the family members and open separate bank accounts on their names for availing benefits from government schemes.
There are various glitches in finding bank account numbers of all the members in a family. Agriculture officer of Khammam district Srinivas Reddy said that some of the members, who had bank accounts, did not give their Aadhar number. In some cases, mobile numbers of the account holders were not furnished.
Agriculture officer Ravi Kumar from Bhadradri district said “Some of them were in other states and a few abroad. Grouping the accounts of these numbers is quite difficult. No family member is available in the villages where the lands located”.
He said that they had noticed errors in 4,200 accounts from among 1.30 lakh in Bhadradri district. He said in some places, although some farmers were eligible, they failed to produce land pattas and Aadhar numbers.
In Khammam district, loans of `25, 000 of about 21,978 farmers from a total of 55,981 were waived-off in the first phase. About 34,003 accounts were found with errors and had become ineligible. Nearly 4600 farmers failed to produce land patta passbooks, or did not make Aadhar seeding.
In the second phase, about 2.7 lakh farmers are eligible to get `50,000 crop loan relief in Khammam district. However, details of 14, 000 farmers from 21 mandals were unavailable.