Mumbai, (The Hindu): ‘22,517 farmers of Udupi may not be able to avail of the benefits of the scheme’

Members of the Udupi district unit of Sahakara Bharati staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s Office here on Tuesday stating that the loan waiver scheme of the State government was unlikely to benefit farmers of Udupi district.

Addressing the protestors, Raviraj Hegde, vice-president of the State unit of Sahakara Bharati, said that loan waiver from commercial banks had remained only a slogan. The entire farm loan waiver scheme was unscientific, he said.

As many as 22,517 farmers in Udupi district had availed themselves of agricultural loans to the tune of Rs. 234.25 crore. But the State government had put 39 conditions to avail of the benefits of the loan waiver scheme. These conditions effectively ruled out almost all the farmers from its ambit in the district, he said.

The State government had issued notification on waiver of loans taken by farmers from cooperative societies. It should also issue a notice for a waiver of loans availed of by farmers from commercial banks. The government should release funds for loan waiver within a limited time-frame to the cooperative societies, he said.

The government should hold a meeting of the representatives of cooperative societies. It should protect the interests of the cooperative societies as well. If this was not done, the cooperative societies might face a capital crunch and this could affect their functioning, he said.

A lot of farmers in Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts had suffered crop loss and damage to their property due to heavy rain in the last three months. The loans taken by such farmers too should be waived, Mr. Hegde said.

Harish Acharya, Suman Sharan, Bola Sadashiva Shetty, B. Madhusudhan Nayak, Manjunath S.K., Cherkady Ashok Kumar Shetty, office-bearers of Sahakara Bharati, were present.