Loan waiver balm for over 72K farmers in RR

Rangareddy: The Rangareddy district saw a total of over 72,000 farmers benefited so far in two different phases under the loan waiver scheme.

After completing the first phase a week ago, the district administration launched the second phase under the farm loan waiver scheme as the District Collector began the distribution of cheques among farmers on Tuesday in the District Collectorate at Kongarakalan.

According to the officials, funds of over Rs 476 crore have been released to benefit over 72,000 farmers during the two stages in the district.

While distributing the cheques among the farmers, District Collector K Shashanka stated that the farmers are celebrating the loan waiver scheme as a festival in almost all the districts.

While elaborating about the extent of funds released and the number of beneficiaries covered under the loan waiver scheme so far, the Collector said, “Loan waiver installments of the first and second phases were released to the banks, which brought a festival-like fervour among the farmers. A total sum of Rs 476.30 crore has been disbursed among 72,615 farmers under the first and second phases in the district.”

“A sum of Rs 258.18 crore to nearly 49,700 farmers in the first phase and Rs 218.12 crore to nearly 22,915 farmers in the second phase were allocated under the loan waiver scheme.

The authorities should take steps to ensure that all the deserving farmers benefit from the scheme,” said the Collector.

“So far, nearly 1,100 applications have been received from farmers who have not gotten the benefit under the farm loan waiver scheme, and concerned officials are taking steps to resolve their grievances,” informed the District Collector.

The Collector further said that farmers who are still not benefited under the scheme can approach concerned agricultural officers in mandals along with their Aadhaar cards that help find out the reason and resolve the issue. Additionally, he said, a grievance cell will be set up for the farmers at the district and mandal levels to address the grievances faced by the farmers.

At field level, the Collector said the agricultural authorities should take steps to ensure that every eligible farmer under their operational areas gets benefit from the scheme. He urged the bank officials to cooperate in extending the farm loans to the eligible farmers under the loan waiver scheme introduced by the State government. Apart from benefiting the farmers under the farm loan waiver scheme, the bankers should come forward to approve new loans to the peasant families.