CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government is considering the farm loan waiver scheme of Tamil Nadu but no policy decision has been taken in this regard, the Finance Minister, Birender Singh, said here on Friday.

He clarified that while speaking at the State-level Bankers Conference held here recently, he had dwelt on the issue of waiver of farm loans by the Tamil Nadu Government and that the Punjab Government too was thinking on the same lines. He said that he had further elaborated that Haryana had sought the details of the said scheme from the Tamil Nadu Government to see if it could be of any help to Haryana.

"Ours being a pro-poor and pro-farmer Government, any scheme which could bring relief to the farmers and mitigate their hardships without jeopardizing the viability of our financial institutions, especially the cooperative banks, would be welcome. However, this has been misconstrued by the print media and made to appear as if the Haryana Government has decided to waive off the loans which farmers owe to cooperative banks and cooperative financial institutions. This has unnecessarily caused laxity on the part of agencies in recovery of dues and at the same time given an excuse for the loanees not to repay their loans to the cooperative banks and institutions,'' he asserted.

Mr.Birender Singh further said: "So far we have not even identified the broad contours of what our policy will be like. Therefore, the impression that the Government has decided to waive off the farm loans of the cooperative banks needs to be dispelled.''

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail