The Jharkhand cabinet Wednesday approved a farm loan waiver scheme with a total budget of Rs 2,000 crore. What is the scheme and who is eligible? How will it be implemented? We explain:
Jharkhand farm loan waiver scheme: What is it, who is eligible?
The loan waiver scheme will give relief to 7.83 lakh farmers in the state. In addition to this, Rs 50,000 will be waived for 1.24 lakh farmers. For each farmer, the capping is at Rs 50,000. The amount will be paid by the government to their respective banks. Both landowners and landless farmers will be eligible. The farmer should have repaid installment at least once during the repayment period.
Advertisement
How many farmers are there in Jharkhand and how much is the farm loan?
The number of farmers in Jharkhand is anywhere between 22 lakh to 32 lakh — most are single crop growers.
There are two figures available on the amount of farm loan due.Jharkhand has 12.93 lakh farmers who have farm loans. In the state Assembly in September, the government said Rs 7,000 crore was due. However, at a Cabinet briefing Wednesday, it said the total amount due was Rs 5,800 crore. It is unclear what will happen to the remaining farmers.
What will happen in the first phase of the implementation?
As per the minutes of the meeting of the Agriculture Department and State Level Bankers Committee, three major banks — State Bank of India, Bank of India, and Jharkhand Gramin Bank — which have 77 per cent of the total loans, will prepare for the first phase of implementation. However, only 10,500 farmers —10,500 ‘Standard KCC’ crop loan accounts — on a sample basis will be benefited on December 29.
In the first phase, the implementation will be done manually. Banks will collect certified copies of farmers’ Aadhaar and ration cards, and retain them for either uploading on a web portal or producing it to the competent authority. Online Aadhar seeding with respective KCC loan accounts have been done. The banks will charge the farmers Re 1 for the service.
The loan waiver scheme will give relief to 7.83 lakh farmers in the state. (Express Photo: Gurmeet Singh, File) 
Share
