‘Only 30% of farm credit target met in Maharashtra’

The Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission (VNSSM), a task force of the Maharashtra government for crop loans in the farmer suicide-prone Marathwada and Vidarbha regions, has said that all PSU banks together could achieve only 30 per cent of their targeted credit disbursal for Kharif 2018.

Chairman of VNSSM Kishore Tiwari told

BusinessLine that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely should immediately come to the rescue of the debt-trapped eight million farmers in the two regions. At the State level also, the picture is very dismal as the PSU banks have failed to fulfil the target given by RBI-Nabard.

Review meet

In a review meeting held in Pune on September 28, the State Lead Bankers Committee said PSU banks together could achieve only 41 per cent of their target in the State. They could disburse only ₹11,000 crore against the target of ₹28,000 crore.

In Vidarbha, out of 3.2 million cotton growers, only 2.8 million farmers are old defaulters of bank loans and not eligible for institutional credit, he said.