‘Shock’ continues in other UP districts
Following the loan waiver shocker in Hamirpur on Sunday where farmers were given loan waiver certificates of Rs 10 and Rs 215, more such cases poured in from other districts on Monday.
Ishwar Dayal, a marginal farmer from Bhartana, braved scorching sun and humidity on Monday to collect his loan waiver certificate only to find that the government has written off 19 paisa of his debt.
And he was not alone. Rama Nand of Chakar Nagar got a waiver of Rs 1.79 while Yadunath of Bhartana will no longer have to pay Rs 1.79 to the bank. Similarly, Munni Lal Bholi of Bhartana had a waiver of Rs 2.
As many as 9,681 farmers met the government’s 34-point eligibility criteria for loan waiver benefit and 7,000 were given certificates at the programme.
According to data, 50 farmers were given a waiver of less than Rs 100 while 200 got less than Rs 1,000.
“I was shocked to see the certificate of waiver of Rs 10.37 given to me in Hamirpur. I fall in the category of small and marginal farmer and met all the conditions. I was expecting that the government would clear Rs 1 lakh against my outstanding of Rs 1.55 lakh on kisan credit card,” said Munni Lal of Maudaha in Hamirpur.
Similar reports were also received from Jalaun, Kannauj, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Farrukhabad and Etawah where certificates were given on Monday after which the farmers had an argument with officials.
Chief development officer, Etawah, PK Srivastava said the government had decided that all the outstanding loans up to Rs 1 lakh till March 31, 2016 would be written off.
“The farmers selected under this scheme got the waiver of the amount they owed to the bank till March 31, 2016. The maximum limit of the waiver is Rs 1 lakh,” he said.
A total of 86 lakh farmers across Uttar Pradesh are to benefit from the waiver — a poll promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Gursahaigunj during the assembly election campaign in February this year.
The names of the farmers were shortlisted by the banks and sent to the government. The waiver will take place in three phases and its first phase is over now.
Lead district manager, Etawah, NK Sharma said the interest amount due on farmers as on March 31, 2016, was waived off under the government’s loan waiver scheme.
“As the outstanding interest amount was also taken into consideration, there was no other option but to include even those farmers under the scheme whose outstanding dues were of a few rupees only,” he said.