Reschedule farm loans, Naidu appeals to bankers

• Waiver places huge financial burden on Andhra Pradesh government
• Farm loans with zero per cent interest to be continued this year
• Rs 1 to Rs 2 lakh farm loans to be given at 3 per cent interest
• AP CM pleads with bankers to be liberal because of threat of drought

Hyderabad: AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday pleaded with the scheduled banks to take a humanitarian view and help the government in implementing the loan waiver scheme.

Addressing the bankers at the first State Level Bankers meeting held at a private hotel here on Monday, the Chief Minister asked the banks not to issue any notice to the farmers who are debt-ridden and not to auction the gold mortgaged for agriculture loans and wait for the government to announce the guidelines.

He called upon the banks to reschedule the loans taken by farmers. He said all category farmers, big, small and medium farmers are in trouble and the banks should take a liberal view more so because the threat drought was looming over the State this year, Naidu told the officials of the SLBC. Rescheduling of loans would help the farming community, who were yet to repay the loans taken in the previous years, in the Khariff season, he said.

He said he understands the concerns raised by the RBI and the apprehensions of the bankers here but he said, instead of raising technical objections, they should adopt a soft approach on re-scheduling of farmer's loans. His government was not here to put any pressure or create problems to the banks but is ready to sort out the issues amicably. The bankers, he said, should also keep in mind that everything should be done to prevent farmer's suicides. Absence of elected government for few months also added to the woes of the farmers, he said.

Naidu also called upon the agencies like NABARD also to pitch in and come to the rescue of the farmers in the state. He took pains to explain in detail why the government had to make the promise of loan waiver. But it appeared that the bankers were not very much in favour of rescheduling the loans and said that it was an issue on which the RBI has to take a decision.

Following this Naidu said in the post bifurcation scenario, the new state of AP was facing financial crisis and the government has several big challenges to achieve the goals set in agriculture and other sectors. He said he was already pursuing the waiver of farm loans with the union government and RBI. The Kotaiah committee constituted to prepare modalities to implement the loan waiver scheme is in process of finailising the report. SLBC has released State credit plan for AP for the year 2014-15. The total plan outlay has been pegged at Rs 91,459 crore for 2014-15 with an allotment of Rs 77,894 crore towards priority sectors. Under agricultural credit, an amount of Rs 56,019 crore has been earmarked.

The Chief minister said the loans up to Rs one lakh with zero percent interest would be extended this year also and the loans between Rs 1 to 2 lakh would be given on 3 per cent interest to the farmers. Naidu also appealed banks to provide loans to tenant farmers.