The implementation of the loan waiver scheme to be delayed by a couple of months

BENGALURU: The chief minister HD Kumaraswamy is all set for December 5th to be the deadline to roll out his ambitious Rs 38,000-crore crop loan waiver scheme, but the government seems to most likely miss the deadline. The scheme’s implementation could be delayed by at least a couple of months.

“We collected data from both commercial and cooperative banks. The verification process is underway, after which farmers will be called to banks for authentication of documents including Aadhaar and land survey numbers,” said cooperative minister Bandeppa Kashempur, who the CM has tasked with executing the scheme.

After identifying that as many as 20.8 lakh loan accounts in 6,500 branches of commercial banks, the government had asked the managers of the bank for the account details. Officials have said that the process of receiving the data has only been completed now; the verification of data of accounts is said to start on December 1.

“The December 5 deadline was set before funds were released,” an official said. “But we were able to start the second step of data verification only on Saturday. It will take two to three months more before the farmers get loan closure certificates.”

Munish Moudgil, the commissioner of survey, settlement and land records, who is in charge of the technology for the scheme, said that the process of verification is progressing at a very slow pace.