CM unhappy with banks over crop loan disbursement

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday expressed his displeasure over the approach by the banks on sanctioning crop loans to farmers and said he doesn’t want

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday expressed his displeasure over the approach by the banks on sanctioning crop loans to farmers and said he doesn’t want to listen any more complaints that the farmers are not getting loans from the banks. Thackeray held a meeting with ministers and senior officials from state cooperation, agriculture, food and civil supplies, and others to review preparations for kharif season.

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A senior official, who attended the meeting, said Thackeray was annoyed to know that nationalised banks disbursed only 7% crop loans to farmers against the target set for this fiscal year.

Thackeray told the officials he would also be speaking to the heads of State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Maharashtra for smooth disbursement of crop loans so that farmers won’t have to face hardships.

“To provide crop loans to farmers at the earliest, the nationalised banks should communicate orders of the state government to all their branches. I don’t want to listen to any more complaints from farmers that they are not getting crop loans,” Thackeray said in the meeting, according to officials.

Thackeray was informed that nationalised banks have disbursed ₹2,300 crore, which comes to 7%, and district central cooperative banks have sanctioned ₹6,250 crore as crop loans, 46% of the target determined for this year. It was found that nationalised banks have refused to sanction loans to over 11.12 lakh farmers who were eligible to get benefit under state-run loan waiver scheme — Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Shetkari Karj Mukti Yojana — but could not get it as the state government is facing financial crisis owing to Covid-19 lockdown and it has expressed its inability to pay amount to the banks at present, said a senior official requesting anonymity.

“This is despite the state government order issued on May 22 to provide fresh credit to defaulting farmers who are eligible under the loan waiver scheme, as the state takes guarantee to pay their loan amount with interest against the delay,” he said.

The state government needs ₹8,100 crore to write off the debts.

The loan waiver scheme promises to write off loans with an outstanding of up to ₹2 lakh for farmers from April 1, 2015 to September 30, 2019. The state has transferred ₹12,000 crore in the bank accounts of over 19 lakh beneficiaries so far, and the other 11.12 lakh beneficiaries are yet to get the benefit.

For this fiscal year, the state has set the target for disbursement of crop loan of ₹45,785 crore to farmers. Of these, nationalised banks were expected to sanction ₹32,262 crore and district central cooperative banks were expected to disburse ₹13,524 crore.

Thackeray further directed that there should not be any shortage of seeds and warned that those found selling bogus seeds will face strict action.