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Camps to issue loan waiver certificates from February 7 in Rajasthan
The Rajasthan government’s decision to issue loan waiver certificates comes after the Narendra Modi government announced an income support scheme for poor farmers in the interim budget 2019. Under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, farmers owning up to two hectares will get ₹6,000 per year.
The Congress government in Rajasthan will start holding camps to issue loan waiver certificates to farmers from February 7, a day before the BJP is set to hold protests and court arrest demanding implementation of debt write-off announcement and 10% reservation to economically weaker sections of the general category.
“Camps to issue loan waiver certificates will start from February 7 in all the districts. In the camps, the beneficiary farmers’ details, such as amount of loan and interest, will be recorded; details will be authenticated through Aadhar cards,” a senior official said on anonymity.
The move comes after the Narendra Modi government announced an income support scheme for poor farmers in the interim budget 2019. Under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, farmers owning up to two hectares will get ₹6,000 per year.
Farmers’ loans will be crosschecked to curb irregularities reported earlier, the official said. “In the camps, certificates will be issued initially to those who have not benefited from the waiver scheme of the previous government. This category includes around 3 lakh small and marginal farmers who had taken loan above ₹50,000 and eight lakh big farmers,” he said. “Through the camps loan of such farmers will be waived off.”
Senior officials of the cooperative department and the chief secretary are holding video conferencing with district collectors to give directions on the camps.
The Ashok Gehlot government had announced waiver of outstanding short-term loans taken from cooperative banks till November 30, 2018. The waiver ambit also includes short-term loans up to ₹2 lakh of the defaulters, who have taken loans from scheduled, nationalised or regional rural banks. There are around 25 scheduled and nationalised banks and 12 regional rural banks from which the farmers have taken loans.
Out of 68.89 lakh farmers in Rajasthan, 55 lakh have taken loans under various schemes. The amount is approximately ₹94,000 crore.
