GULBARGA: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday said the State Government was firm on writing off the crop loans to prevent farmers from committing suicides.

Speaking at a function organised by the Gulbarga District Cooperative Credit Bank here, Mr. Kumaraswamy said Karnataka had consciously taken this decision despite the financial burden on the State exchequer to help farmers.

The Chief Minister said he was distressed by the reports of suicide by farmers and on Sunday another farmer had committed suicide in Koppal district unable to pay back the loan taken from banks.

"When big industrialists who fail to repay crores of rupees as loan from the banks were leading a lavish and honourable life, farmers who availed a few thousands of rupees as loan were committing suicide unable to pay it back," he said.

A challenging task

Mr. Kumaraswamy said: "I know this is a challenging task of writing off the crop loan, but I have taken this as a challenge." He gave indications that no separate allocation for the writing off the loan would be made in the next year's budget, since it would be difficult to find funds for it.

He said the Government had decided to utilise the funds accrued from the sale of encroached lands in Bangalore for waiving off the crop loan taken by farmers. The Government had identified 18,000 acres of land as encroached and belonging to the Revenue Department. These lands would be taken back in phases and sold in open market to generate funds for writing off the farm loan.

Sale proceeds

The Chief Minister said the Government would take back 3,000 acres of revenue lands encroached in Bangalore city, and the money generated from the sale of 3,000 acres would be paid to banks for waiving off the crop loans.

He said the credit operations of the banks would not be affected by the decision of the Government and he had convened a high level meeting with the Cooperation Department officials in Bangalore. The issue of crop loan waiver and its impact on the plans for the next season would be discussed in detail at the meeting. The Government had sought from the department details of pending crop loans in the cooperative sector.

Referring to problems faced by the sugarcane growers in not getting remunerative prices and sugarcane factories refusing to lift sugarcane grown in the region, Mr. Kumaraswamy said he would hold discussions with the Minister and officials concerned.

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