'Reimburse co-op societies'

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council S R Patil on Friday demanded that the State government should reimburse all agriculture credit co-operative societies for the recently announced crop loan waiver scheme in the State.

Addressing reporters, he said several societies are not financially strong. If the government fails to reimburse them after waiving crop loans, they will have no option but to close down, he added.

A large number of small farmers in many districts like Kolar, Gadag and Chikkaballapur were forced to take farm loan from nationalised banks as the co-operative societies were unable to give loans. The loan waiver scheme should cover all such farmers in the State, he said.

Patil criticised the government for spending more money on purchasing power than its generation. The government has spent about Rs 9,500 crore for power purchase in the last four years, while investing less than Rs 5,000 crore on generation, he added.