The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Farm loans sought at 4% interest

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Farm loans sought at 4% interest

Special Correspondent

‘Many ineligible for waiver’

Karshaka Congress seeks directive to cooperative banks
‘Even deserving farmers not getting their due’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government should direct the State and district cooperative banks to give agriculture loans at four per cent interest, Kerala Pradesh Karshaka Congress Committee(I) president Lal Varges Kalpakavadi has said.

Mr. Lal Varges and secretary George P. Sajith told reporters here on Saturday that cooperative banks were reluctant to sanction agriculture loans. “Certain cooperative banks do not even distribute relief under the Central loan waiver scheme properly.

There are complaints that even deserving farmers are not getting their due,” they said.

Banks have put a system in place to file complaints about the loan waiver scheme. Farmers should avail themselves of the facility and file the complaints till July 31, they added.

Losing benefit

The government had compelled thousands of farmers to repay debts in the name of ‘Manaviyam Sathavarsham’ and hence they became ineligible for the Central relief worth Rs.300 crore.

Farmers who repaid loans on time and lost the benefit were an aggrieved lot. The State government failed to present their case before the Centre while preparing the package. Though KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala and Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy took up the issue with Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, he said that the relief had a national pattern and it could not altered for Kerala alone. Since the State government was responsible for depriving the farmers of the benefit, it should find out an alternative, they said.

‘Dissolve debt panel’

The State government has not taken any step in the past two years to write off loans. The Debt Relief Commission has become defunct.

The Rs.16 crore relief announced by the commission has been kept in the cold storage owing to the differences between the CPI and the CPI(M). The government should dissolve the commission, they said.

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