In loan waiver scheme, UP farmer gets relief of 19 paise

KANPUR/LUCKNOW: Ishwar Dayal, a marginal farmer of Bhartana in Etawah of Uttar Pradesh, was in for a shock when he was handed over by district officials a certificate saying his outstanding farm loan amounting to 19 paise has been waived.

He says he couldn’t believe that such a measly amount has been waived. Equally stumped were dozens of other farmers handed out similar certificates at a programme held in the district headquarters of Etawah on Monday. Rama Nand got ₹1.79 that he owed to the bank waived, while the certificate that Munni Lal Bholi got stated that his outstanding loan of ₹2 had been waived.

Hundreds of farmers – big and small – have similarly been left bewildered as the Uttar Pradesh government headed by chief minister Yogi Adityanath follows up on its poll promise of waving farm loans up to ₹1 lakh to ease agriculture distress in the state’s rural hinterland. Promised even by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election rally in Kannauj district in February, some 86 lakh farmers across the state are expected to benefit under the scheme.

But as district after district holds such programmes to hand out loan waiver certificates to the beneficiaries, there have been shockers and genuine relief in equal measure. On Sunday, some farmers at Hamirpur had loans waived from ₹10 to ₹215. The next day, it was the turn of many farmers in Etawah to be taken aback.

At a programme on Monday, some 7,000 farmers were handed over certificates notifying the amount of their loans waived. According to official data, some 50 farmers got less than ₹100 of their outstanding loans waived while the benefit for 200 of them was less than ₹1,000 each.