Other States - Orissa   

Bankers hit hard by loan waiver

BHUBANESWAR: When Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced one of the biggest ever loan waivers for farm sector, which was to the tune of Rs. 60,000 crore, it triggered smiles on faces of lakhs of farmers, but it spelled doom for a few hundred of bank employees in Orissa.

More than 300 employees of Orissa State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development (OSCARD) and its associate CARD banks, who used to get their monthly salary from the interest amount paid by farmers, have been working unpaid for a couple of months now.

“The announcement was made all of a sudden. Before we realise the consequence of loan waiver on our finance and re-strategise our approach, farmers stopped paying their instalments, anticipating that their loans will be waived,” Subas Panigrahi, the Chairman of OSCARD bank, said here on Sunday.

The CARD bank of Khurda had lent loans to 5,819 farmers, out of which 28 were big farmers who did not come in loan waiver scheme. These beneficiaries were to repay Rs. 9.85 crore, of which Rs. 1.13 crore was to be paid by big farmers. After the loan waiver announcement, all farmers stopped paying loans. As a result, 14 employees in the Khurda CARD bank have not received their salaries, Harendranath Pal, the Secretary of Khurda CARD bank, said.

There are about 320 employees working in 46 CARD banks and OSCARD bank and Rs. 8 lakh is disbursed among them on salary head whereas the banks used to recover Rs 15 to Rs. 20 lakh per month.

The OSCARD gets loan from the NABARD at the rate 1 per cent interest, in the turn State’s nodal bank provided CARD banks at 2 per cent interest rate. Farmers finally secure loan at four per cent interest rate. Funds accrued from gaps in interest rate was also used for paying salaries.

“The total amount of loan to be paid by farmers could touch an amount of Rs. 100 crore. After announcement was made, no clear instruction was given to us about loan waiver scheme. We are yet to identify who are the real beneficiaries,” Mr. Panigrahi said.

He said the recent visit of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi also added to the confusion. “We were under the impression that farmers having less than 4 acres of land will be eligible for getting loan waiver. However, Mr. Gandhi announced that farmers having 4 hecatres are also eligible,” Mr. Panigrahi said.

Now the OSCARD had hit upon a novel idea to pay salaries and arrears. It asked his employees and members to get personal loan from different institutions and banks to meet their expenditure and later their own bank would repay the amount at higher interest rate.

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