Date:13/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/13/stories/2008031359200800.htm

Tamil Nadu

Manmohan urged to extend loan waiver to all farmers

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Consortium of Cauvery Delta Farmers has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to extend the farm loan waiving scheme, announced in the Union Budget, to all farmers irrespective of the size of their land holdings.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the consortium pointed out that it would be appropriate to fix the waiver on the basis of loans obtained by farmers rather than the size of their holdings.

As farmers belonging to all categories were affected in the last five years by drought, floods, tsunami and other factors, the government should fix Rs.75,000 as the upper limit of the waiver, which would take care of all sections.

The consortium said though the cut-off date of March 31, 2007 for loan waiver was acceptable, the condition that the loans should be overdue as on December 31, 2007, could not be uniformly applied.

As each bank was adopting different periods for calculating overdue for the sake of administrative convenience, the stipulation of loans having to be overdue as on December 31, 2007 should be dropped and suitable direction be given to the banks, the consortium added in the memorandum.