Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Relief for cooperative banks

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Giving a breather to the cooperative banks which waived the crop loans of the debt-ridden farmers of Wayanad district, the government would soon implement the Kerala Farmers’ Debt Relief Commission’s recommendations to compensate their loss.

Official sources told The Hindu that the Finance Department had expressed its willingness to meet the financial commitment of the cooperative banks in waiving the loans without any further delay. The commission, in its annual report for 2007-08 had said that majority of the farmers in Wayanad had only less than one acre land and most of them had taken only loans amounting to less than Rs.25,000. The commission made a special recommendation to completely waive the loans of the small and marginal farmers in the district till June 30, 2006. The report said that but for issuing an order waiving the loans on January 25 last, no follow-up action had been taken by the government.

When the commission members held a meeting with Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac here on Friday, Dr. Isaac is understood to have agreed to compensate the loss incurred by the cooperative banks right away.

Since the Union Finance Minister has already announced debt waiver and relief packages for commercial banks, Dr. Isaac’s commitment is expected to be a great relief to the cooperative banks which are feared to be heading for a liquidity crisis on implementing the debt waiver scheme.

The commission has recommended to the government to declare cardamom, coffee and tea in Idukki district as ‘calamity-affected crops’ and Kuttanad taluk, the hub of paddy cultivation in Alappuzha district, as calamity-affected region.

Recommendations have also been submitted to declare arecanut in Kasaragod, sugarcane and cotton in Palakkad as ‘calamity affected crops. The commission meeting held at the behest of the Chief Minister is understood to have reviewed the report. A political decision would be made on other recommendations of the commission, the sources said.

The report says that 3,35,762 borrowers had approached the commission seeking to declare them as ‘calamity-affected farmers.’ Idukki had the highest number of applicants, 1,17,745, followed by Wayanad with 1,05,411, Palakkad 14,663, Thiruvananthapuram 6,687 and Alappuzha 4,240. Thrissur had the lowest number of applicants, 68.

Many of them were facing revenue recovery proceedings. The commission issued interim orders freezing the proceedings and then had extensive sittings in the agrarian districts before submitting the report.

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