Agriculture Department Enlisting Names of Farmers Who Could not Avail Loan Waiver

Hyderabad: The state agriculture department is enlisting names of those farmers who could not avail the loan waiver because they did not have ration cards. With the ration card being the basis for determining family as a unit, family members above 18 years are being called to their native places for enlisting in this exercise.

Sources say till date 1,02,880 loan accounts belonging to 4.8 lakh families have been identified.

While officials have asked some IT employees to be part of this exercise, many others of the same work profile have not been asked to enroll.

With no change in the norms of GO.567, which include exemptions as per PM-Kisan, confusion reigns over the eligibility for the waiver.

The department has created an application and the directives issued by the department enjoin the field-level officers to visit the families of beneficiaries to enlist the details and upload them.

This exercise, which started on August 27, has to be completed by September 7. The officials will first check if the loan accounts and Aadhaar numbers are correctly entered and then upload the details of family members. The form will have details of the family heads, their mobile numbers, bank branch along with an undertaking that the details are being sought to avail loan waiver.

This will then be attested by the village secretary. The rules have further directed the banks to reschedule the remaining loan amount over and above the Rs.2-lakh limit. The agriculture department wrote a letter to the banks regarding this. The banks had so far desisted from this, citing lack of directions from the government.

There is no clarity on when the loans of those in this category would be waived. Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao had hinted at waiver of these loans in a phased manner.

Commenting on the exercise, agriculture officials were ruing that they have been roped into an exercise which is primarily the responsibility of the revenue department to identify families as a unit and loan details are to be availed from the banks.