Farmers lined up to submit their applications through letter campaign urging Centre to waive off farm loans, in Belagavi, on Monday.
Credit: DH Photo
As many as 30,733 farmers who were eligible for loan waiver through the 2017 and 2018 schemes are still running pillar to post get their waiver amount sanctioned, even as the Siddaramaiah government is gearing up to launch another farm loan interest waiver scheme and provide a compensation of Rs 2,000 to farmers.
In June 2017, in his first term as chief minister, Siddaramaiah had announced a farm loan waiver of up to Rs 50,000, under which the government is yet to clear Rs 129.67 crore.
Under the farm loan waiver scheme of up to Rs 1 lakh, launched by the Congress-JD(S) coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy, Rs 232 crore is pending for disbursal. From both schemes, cumulatively, Rs 361.67 crore is pending since 2021.
As many as 13,334 of the 30,733 farmers are yet to receive loan waiver benefits under the farm loan waiver scheme launched by Kumaraswamy in 2018. The remaining 17,399 are yet to receive aid under Siddaramaiah’s scheme.
According to data from the co-operation department accessed by DH, 17.5 lakh farmers were eligible under Kumaraswamy’s scheme, after rejecting 1.57 loan waiver applications processed through the special loan waiver certification software.
The delay of four to five years has resulted in most of these (30,733) farmers failing to secure loans from respective co-operative banks.
On the final day of the legislature session in Belagavi last month, Siddaramaiah had announced an interest waiver on farm loans for those who have repaid the principal amount in full.
A senior bureaucrat in the co-operation department told DH that the entire country had come to a standstill due to the outbreak of Covid pandemic.
“BJP’s tenure since 2019 was marred by the outbreak of Covid pandemic, as a result of which, the government mobilised all resources to tackle the pandemic. Since then, confusion over the release of funds has remained,” sources said.
The officer said the co-operation department had been pursuing with the finance department to release the arrears, besides readying a plan to roll out Siddaramaiah’s latest promise of interest waiver for farm loans.
Data from the co-operation department shows that in the 2022-23 fiscal year, 28.86 lakh farmers have cumulatively taken loan of Rs 21,224.05 crore from various co-operative financial institutions. In the same period, 5.48 lakh farmers have cumulatively taken loan of Rs 9,761.85 crore from various nationalized banks.
Of the 28.86 lakh farmers who have taken loans from co-operative societies, 18.64 lakh farmers repaid Rs 12,849.19 crore till November 2023, while 47,733 farmers have defaulted in their payment, to the tune of Rs 320.56 crore in the same period.
Former co-operation minister S T Somashekhar told DH that the registration of farmers’ loan waiver applications became a tedious process with the new software during his tenure.
This resulted in the finance department not releasing funds on time, compounding problems for this small section of affected farmers.
“As minister, I tried my best to get this Rs 361.67 crore released to farmers. But the finance department has not taken any decision on this yet. I ensured that the 30,733 farmers’ applications were sorted and did put up a file for early release of funds in 2021 itself,” he said.
Somashekhar said the delay had caused another set of problems to these farmers as they are not able to secure loans from co-operative banks, where they have accounts. They are now forced to take loans from private money lenders.