Jharkhand government considering Rs 1700 crore loan waiver for 4 lakh farmers 

Ranchi: Jharkhand government is considering giving benefits of loan waiver scheme to farmers. In fact, fewer farmers have started coming to avail the benefits of ‘Jharkhand Agricultural Loan Waiver Scheme’. In view of the small number of farmers, the Agriculture Department is now planning to give the benefit of loan waiver scheme to the account holders declared as Non-Performing Asset (NPA). The number of such farmers has been estimated at around four lakhs. A meeting has also been held between bank officials and agriculture department officials regarding starting the scheme. Bank officials have said that a decision on this cannot be taken at the local level. For this, decisions will have to be taken at the board level. For this, models of other states can be adopted.

In the current financial year only 34,700 farmers have applied for loan waiver. Till the last financial year, loans of more than 4.14 lakh farmers have been waived off. The state government has spent more than Rs 1818 crore on this. Let us tell you that the state government is talking about the plan to waive off the loans of the farmers holding NPA accounts of the state on the Karnataka model. Farmers will also have a stake in this. In Karnataka, 25 percent of the loan amount has to be borne by the bank, 50 percent by the government and 25 percent by the beneficiary. By doing this, the farmer will have to first pay his share and remove the account from NPA.

If the state government waives off the loans of farmers holding NPA accounts, then about four lakh farmers will get its benefit. They have loan outstanding of about Rs 1700 crore. Under the scheme, farmers will be forgiven an average of Rs 50 thousand. The state government can keep the cutoff date for this as 31 March 2023. Banks have declared the accounts of farmers who have not paid the loan amount for three years as NPA. There is no transaction with this. The farmers of Palamu have taken maximum benefit of the loan waiver scheme. There Rs 158.70 crore has been waived off to the farmers. The farmers of Simdega have taken the least benefit of loan waiver of Rs 24.50 crore. Loans worth Rs 112.93 crore of farmers of Ranchi have been waived off.