SYMPATHETIC HEARING: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets farmers at Dhamangao village in Wardha on Saturday. — PHOTO: PTI

NAGPUR: Interest waiver and debt rescheduling form the main thrust of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Rs. 3,750-crore package of relief measures for Vidharbha, Maharashtra. The package, announced on Saturday, will help farmers in six districts of the region.

Hundreds of farmers have committed suicide in the region, unable to bear the heavy burden of debt brought on by declining prices for cotton.

In addition, a special rehabilitation package will be launched in 31 districts of four States where farmers have committed suicide.

Apart from the six in Maharashtra, 16 districts have been identified in Andhra Pradesh, three in Kerala, six in Karnataka.

Unveiling the package at a press conference at the Raj Bhavan here, Dr. Singh said the entire overdue interest on loans would be waived and all farmers would have no past interest burden as of today.

The Prime Minister said there was a cry all around for providing relief to farmers from debt, and, in many cases, the overdue interest exceeded the original loan. The overdue interest in the six affected districts of Vidharbha was around Rs. 712 crore as on June 30, 2006. The waiver of interest would make farmers immediately eligible for fresh loans. The Centre and the State Governments would share this burden equally.

In addition, Rs. 1,296 crore of overdue loans as on June 30, 2006 would be rescheduled over a period of three to five years with a one-year moratorium. Dr. Singh also promised to ensure an additional credit flow of Rs. 1,275 crore in 2006-07 in the six districts.

Special teams would be deputed from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the lead banks to ensure this.

Dr. Singh said the Maharashtra Government had a clean sheet in tackling the crisis, and added that he had not come on a fault-finding mission. The State had taken good steps and the Centre was strengthening them.

On the issue of better remunerative prices, he said it needed to be discussed properly. He was aware of the need to move away from the focus on cash crops.

Dr. Singh said the interactions in the last two days with farmers and widows of those who had committed suicide had left a deep impression on him. He proposed to place Rs. 50 lakh each at the disposal of each Collector in the six districts to be used for the relief of families. He had heard mothers crying to meet the expenses of education and fathers struggling to meet health expenses.

The Prime Minister said these short-term measures would make a difference. The package also had several long-term measures.

The Central Government would provide Rs. 2,177 crore for the completion of 524 major, medium and minor irrigation projects in these districts over the next three years. About 1.59 lakh hectares would be brought under irrigation.

A Rs. 180-crore Quality Seed Replacement Programme would be started so that the problem of good quality seeds was sorted out. The six districts would get Rs. 240 crore for watershed development, check dam construction and rainwater harvesting. In addition, the package would allot Rs. 225 crore towards the National Horticulture Mission, which would cover all the six districts, including Buldhana, and the problems in orange cultivation would be addressed. It was proposed to expand drip and sprinkler irrigation to cover 50,000 hectares.

Dr. Singh said it was important that farmers had additional sources of livelihood. "We propose to start a major programme costing Rs. 135 crore for improving cattle and fisheries activities in these districts. Hopefully, this would ensure that there would be parallel streams of income to reduce dependence on agriculture," he said.

Since implementation had been an issue with such packages, Dr. Singh said his own office would monitor the implementation. He had asked his Principal Secretary to hold a meeting of officers to avoid delays.

He said agricultural indebtedness had to be treated as a national problem and addressed on a war-footing.

Experts group

The Government would set up an experts group in the next few days to look into the problem in totality. This group would give its recommendations in the next three months after consulting the State Governments.

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Union Aviation Minister Praful Patel were present.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu