The Karnataka government on Monday announced that Rs 900 crore will be released as a part of the farm loan waiver scheme after May 23. Around 1.5 lakh farmers are expected to benefit from the scheme.
The scheme was introduced by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in August 2018 and so far, the government claims to have waived farm loans worth Rs 7,417 crore for 15.5 lakh farmers. The government had, however, stopped waiving farm loans after the Election Commission issued direction to halt the scheme due to the model code of conduct.
The EC had stated that the scheme involved monetary benefits and that voters would be motivated to favour the ruling government in the Lok Sabha Elections.
According to data provided by the Chief Minister’s office, loans in commercial banks worth Rs 3,939 crore has been waived for 7.49 lakh farmers till April 2019. In the cooperative bank sector, Rs 3,488 crore worth loans have been waived for 8.1 lakh farmers.
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The data suggests that Kalaburgi has the highest number of beneficiaries (72,654), whose loans have been waived, followed by Haveri (62,915) and Raichur (49,280). In commercial banks, Belagavi district has recorded the highest number of farmers whose loans have been waived (87,276) followed by Tumkur (82798) and Mandya (78,167).
According to officials with the Co-operation Department, a variety of factors have resulted in the delay of farms loans being waived.
Speaking to TNM, an official said that many a times there are delays in the process due of mismatch of information in the loan waiver applications and Aadhaar card details. “Sometimes there are slight variations such as different spellings appearing in these two documents such as Basavaraju and Basavarajappa. Even though both documents belong to the same person, spelling errors call for verification and the application is transferred to the Taluk Committee. Similar errors like different initials or surnames also go through the same verification process,” the official said.
Another major cause for delay, he says, is the transfer of the loan to the legal heirs of farmers who have died. “There are also instances of death of the applicants in which case the proceedings need to verified. The land records state that the plot belongs to one person but the application may have been filed by the legal heir of the farmer as he may have died. Such complications are sent to the Taluk committee to be resolved and therefore, these applications by farmers are not rejected but put on hold until their information is verified,” he added.