Written by: Express News Service
2 min readMumbaiApr 16, 2014 11:21 AM IST
First published on: Apr 23, 2013 at 05:12 AM IST
Considering the drought situation,the outlay for agriculture and allied activities in the state would cross Rs 1 lakh-crore this fiscal,Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said Monday. Of this,Rs 35,000 crore would be set aside for crop loans,he said.
Rs 50,000 crore has been earmarked for agriculture and the remaining Rs 15,000 crore for allied activities such as subsidies for drip irrigation.
Following a meeting of the state-level banking committee,Chavan said the money disbursed by the state for crop loans had increased four times in the past three years.
He said while the crop loan disbursement target for 2012-13 was Rs 24,739 crore,the state achieved Rs 25,197 crore.
“Banks have been asked to increase staff in the 15 drought-affected districts and to not pursue recovery of loans from farmers in a strict manner. The rearrangement of the outlay is to enable farmers who have been unable to repay loans drawn the previous year at a small rate of interest of 2 per cent to draw fresh crop loans,” Chavan said.
Farmers in 11,809 villages are expected to benefit from the Rs 7,000 crore earmarked for crop loans in the 15 drought-affected districts.
Chavan said district-level credit committees will meet this week itself.
Moreover,the state has urged banks to grant loans to farmers for storing harvest in warehouses.
Chavan admitted only one cooperative bank had come forward to disburse such loans but said otherwise the crop loan contribution of nationalised banks had increased from 25 per cent three years ago to 51 per cent as compared to state cooperative banks.
Earlier,75 per cent of crop loans were being disbursed by coop banks.
Aadhaar cards mandatory,but…
The government is set to make Aadhaar cards compulsory to avail subsidies,but Chavan said the rule will apply only to districts where enrollment has crossed 75 per cent.
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