Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider loan wavier for farmers.
In a letter to Modi, the Chief Minister said, “As you are aware, Karnataka has been facing drought continuously for the last six years, the severity of drought has intensified over the last two years and has extended to major parts of the state. This has placed enormous burden on the lives of the farmers who have to live with repeated crop failures and loss of income.”
“Having regard to the plight of farmers in Karnataka, I reiterate my request and fervently appeal to you to waive off loans availed by the farmers. This will go a long way in mitigating the hardship of the farmers and helping them to undertake normal agricultural operations in the current kharif season,” he added. Siddaramaiah had made a similar plea in February too. About 80 per cent of the agricultural loans in Karnataka are from commercial banks, private banks and RRBs and 20 per cent from co-operative banks.
Reeling out statistics, Chief Minister said that as on March 31, 2017, about 51 lakh farmers in the state had taken ₹52,744.28-crore crop loans.
Of this, 28.73 lakh farmers have availed ₹42,007.47-crore loan from commercial banks, private banks and RRBs and 22.27 lakh farmers had taken ₹10,736.81 crore from co-operative banks.
“I had requested you to waive 50 per cent of the short-term loans that farmers have availed from commercial banks, private banks and RRBs. I had also assured you that the Karnataka government will waive off 50 per cent of the loans availed from co-operate banks,” he said.