Subject: DNAIndia.com : Banks in M'shtra yet to finalise waiver lists
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| Banks in vidarbha yet to finalise waiver lists |
By - Jaideep Hardikar
Farmers, on the brink of the sowing season, also face a cash crunch
NAGPUR: The government's gigantic exercise of extending the loan waiver scheme to farmers is fraught with confusion and desperation, even as bank officials work round-the-clock in the crucial monsoon phase, not on fresh credit but finalisation of beneficiary-lists.
With just a day for the June 30 deadline for banks to display the final lists of beneficiaries, farmers are desperate for fresh loans that are hard to come by this season from formal or informal sources.
"The scheme was announced in February but the banks received the circulars from June 2 onwards. We lost crucial time," says a bank official. Officials are confused with Nabard issuing at least 36 clarifications since June 2 and asking officials to rework the lists with the ever-changing criteria. Many farmers will know if they benefit from the waiver and how only by June 30, when the final lists are put on display.
The lists will determine to what extent a farmer becomes eligible for fresh loans in the 2008 kharif season, bankers say.
It's unclear if the pre-1997 loans would also be waived. The state government suggested that Nabard include pre-March 1997 outstanding loans and ones taken from cooperative and credit societies.
"We are working day and night to finalise the lists and the benefit to each account," said S N Raut, manager, Ashti Branch of the Wardha district Central Cooperative Bank. The lists will also have to translated into English. Kashinath Solanke, a tribal farmer says,"We had fertiliser and seed shortages and fresh credit is still a problem," he notes. Informal credit is also a problem. Lenders have hiked the interest rates, say farmers.
Kosher Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti says, " There would be a bloodbath if disbursement of credit for 2008 kharif doesn't start soon." Already, banks said they wouldnt be able to give fresh credit to farmers at Friday's meeting of the state-Level Bankers' Committee at Mumbai.
Agriculture expert Vijay Jawandhia: "Had the Centre waived all loans up to Rs 50,000, instead of putting ceiling on land holding, it'd not only have benefited many farmers but caused a lesser drain on government kitty and time."
h_jaideep@dnaindia.net
With just a day for the June 30 deadline for banks to display the final lists of beneficiaries, farmers are desperate for fresh loans that are hard to come by this season from formal or informal sources.
"The scheme was announced in February but the banks received the circulars from June 2 onwards. We lost crucial time," says a bank official. Officials are confused with Nabard issuing at least 36 clarifications since June 2 and asking officials to rework the lists with the ever-changing criteria. Many farmers will know if they benefit from the waiver and how only by June 30, when the final lists are put on display.
The lists will determine to what extent a farmer becomes eligible for fresh loans in the 2008 kharif season, bankers say.
It's unclear if the pre-1997 loans would also be waived. The state government suggested that Nabard include pre-March 1997 outstanding loans and ones taken from cooperative and credit societies.
"We are working day and night to finalise the lists and the benefit to each account," said S N Raut, manager, Ashti Branch of the Wardha district Central Cooperative Bank. The lists will also have to translated into English. Kashinath Solanke, a tribal farmer says,"We had fertiliser and seed shortages and fresh credit is still a problem," he notes. Informal credit is also a problem. Lenders have hiked the interest rates, say farmers.
Kosher Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti says, " There would be a bloodbath if disbursement of credit for 2008 kharif doesn't start soon." Already, banks said they wouldnt be able to give fresh credit to farmers at Friday's meeting of the state-Level Bankers' Committee at Mumbai.
Agriculture expert Vijay Jawandhia: "Had the Centre waived all loans up to Rs 50,000, instead of putting ceiling on land holding, it'd not only have benefited many farmers but caused a lesser drain on government kitty and time."
h_jaideep@dnaindia.net
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