Farm loan waiver: Govt to ask banks not to issue notice to farmers

LUCKNOW: Even as the agitation of farmers continued to aggravate the problems of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, his UP counterpart Yogi Adityanath held a meeting on Friday to execute his cabinet’s decision on farm loan waiver.

The CM directed the officials to provide money equal to loan waiver amount to banks immediately after the state budget 2017-18 is passed.

Yogi directed the officials to meet 86 lakh beneficiaries and hand over certificates to them.

He said the banks should be alerted that they should not issue notices to farmers till the state budget was passed. The CM asked the officers engaged in the execution of loan waiver to direct monitoring committees led by DMs to ensure effective implementation of loan waiver scheme.

It was decided that the bank accounts of beneficiaries will be linked to their Aadhar number.

The state government has decided to waive farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh of small and marginal farmers who took loans before March 31, 2016.

The UP government’s decision to waive farm loans has set a chain reaction of sorts in the country spurring farmers to demand loan waiver from state governments.

At least five farmers have died in police firing during farmers’ agitation in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh while agitations are on in Maharashtra, and its CM Devendra Fadnavis has announced a loan waiver scheme.