Date:11/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/11/stories/2008111160770500.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Uncertainty over sanction of incentive to farmers

R. Jagadeeswara Rao

Rs 5,000 Incentive to farmers who paid loans on time
List of beneficiaries not yet received, say officials

VISAKHAPATNAM: There is uncertainty over sanction of Rs.5,000 incentive that the government had announced for farmers who had repaid their crop loans promptly. Identification of farmers who are eligible for the incentive and preparation of documents is yet to be completed. The government proposes to hand over this ‘gift’ to farmers as part of Indiramma sambaralu on November 19, the birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi.

Loan waiver

It may be mentioned here that the Union Government had announced crop loan waiver to farmers. But only farmers who had overdue loans as on December 31, 2007 are eligible for this loan waiver. As per these guidelines about 1.50 lakh farmers got the benefit of loan waiver scheme to the tune of Rs.208 crore in the district. This has expectedly caused a lot of heartburn among the farmers who had repaid their loans promptly. To assuage these feelings, the State government had announced an incentive of Rs.5000 to farmers who were not the beneficiaries of loan waiver scheme. The cut off date for this is March 2008.

But enquiries with the officials concerned on Monday, reveal that they had not yet received the guidelines for preparing the list of possible beneficiaries for the proposed incentive. According to officials the number of crop accounts in the district is about four lakhs. Of them about 1.51 lakh had enjoyed the benefit of loan waiver scheme. So nearly 2.5 lakh might find themselves to be eligible for the incentive.

According to officials, the list of beneficiaries prepared by cooperative banks will have to be cross-checked with other commercial banks to avoid claims of ‘double benefit’.

Bankers’ meet

The State-level bankers’ committee meeting is convened at Hyderabad on Wednesday.

All the lead bank managers will attend the meeting. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy is scheduled to attend the meeting, where all the details regarding sanction of incentives and other details are likely to be discussed and finalised.