CM to hand over farm loan waiver papers after I-Day
LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is all set to roll out the much-publicised farm loan waiver scheme by handing over certificates to small and marginal farmers here on August 17.
Around 9,500 farmers will receive the loan waiver certificates from the chief minister at the post-Independence Day launch. A big event has been planned at Smriti Upvan in Lucknow on August 17 when the farmers will be invited to receive the farm loan waiver certificates.
After the programme, ministers in-charge, MPs and MLAs will distribute loan waiver certificates to farmers in other districts. The full-fledged roll-out of the scheme in the districts will take place from the first week of September.
Around 86 lakh farmers in UP are expected to benefit from the scheme in which their loan of up to Rs 1 lakh each will be waived. The state government has already made a provision of Rs 34,000 crore in the budget this fiscal for the loan waiver, though earlier they had claimed Rs 36,000 crore will be required for the scheme.
The Aadhaar number of farmers will be verified before giving them the benefit of the scheme. District officials have been asked to check records in case a farmer’s name is different in the land records and in the bank. They will also see whether the loan is given by a bank branch that is not located in the same district where the farmer has his land. Cases where there is duplicity in the Aadhaar number or bank account will be scrutinised closely.
In its first cabinet meeting on April 4, the Yogi government had taken the decision to implement the loan waiver scheme for the farmers. The scheme, which was part of BJP’s poll manifesto, is said to be the biggest so far by any state. In fact, it is more than half the size of the loan waiver, announced by UPA-1 government in 2008 for whole of India.
All the farmers who have taken loan from any bank, including the cooperative banks, are covered. But it applies only to farm loans taken for paddy, wheat, fertilisers and insecticides. Only those farmers who took loan before March 31 are eligible for the loan waiver scheme. The scheme will also cover seven lakh farmers who were in the debt trap and whose loans had turned into non- performing assets. For the loan waiver scheme, small farmers have been defined as farmers having land holdings below two hectares and marginal farmers have been defined as farmers having land holdings below one hectare.