Handful of farmers benefited from the loan waiver scheme after four months of its announcement

BELAGAVI: On Wednesday the state government had admitted that only a handful of farmers have been benefited, from the Rs 44,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme after four months of its announcement.

Bandeppa Kashempur the Cooperation minister had told the legislative assembly that only about 800 farmers have availed benefits from the scheme, which was announced by the CM on the 5th of July. In the manifesto of the party and in the pre-election rallies, Kumaraswamy had promised to waive farmers’ loans within the 24 hours of the assuming office.

By stating the reasons for the delay, Kashempur said that the government was expecting 43 lakh applications from farmers, which also included 20 lakh farmers who have availed loans from cooperative banks and the rest from the nationalized banks.

Kashempur had said that commercial and district central cooperative banks have also been asked to submit information. The two databases which have been submitted by farmers and the banks, are being cross checked before the preparation of the final list, which is known as the green list. The slow implementation of the scheme was mainly because of the delay in generating the second green list, and does not involve any shortage of funds.