Date:14/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/14/stories/2008031460501200.htm

National

Pawar: loan waiver will include allied sectors

Special Correspondent

Fishermen, farmers in aquaculture eligible for scheme
Pitfalls in lending policy: Deve Gowda

NEW DELHI: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar clarified on Thursday that the Rs. 60,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme would include farmers in allied sectors such as fisheries and dairy.

Speaking at a conference organised by the Consortium of Indian Farmers’ Association (CIFA), Mr. Pawar said fishermen and farmers who were in aquaculture would be eligible for the benefits under the scheme.

He said he had written to the Chief Ministers to act against illegal money-lenders and monitor the licensed money-lenders to ensure that farmers were not exploited. As of now, 21 States, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, have Money-Lenders Act.

Mr. Pawar, however, said that unless serious thought was given to retaining the atmosphere of re-payment of loan, financial institutions would collapse. He felt that the irrigation sector required investment.

The Minister said the government had made a beginning with the loan waiver scheme for providing relief to farmers who had gone out of the system due to default and were borrowing from money-lenders.

The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, said there were a lot of pitfalls in the lending policy of the government. There was no study on how much lending was for traditional crops and for plantation crops, he said.