Bengaluru, (DHNS): Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday mounted a combative attack on banks, warning them against pressurising farmers to repay crop loans. “Banks should stop playing with farmers. The Cabinet has approved the crop loan waiver, money has been earmarked, and orders have been issued. Then why are banks harassing farmers?” Kumaraswamy told reporters after holding talks with bankers to review the crop loan waiver. “In Lakshmeshwar, a farmer was issued a notice by a bank through its lawyer.

I have ordered registering a first information report against the bank official concerned,” the chief minister said to buttress the seriousness of his warning. The Rs 44,000-crore loan waiver scheme has been Kumaraswamy’s pet project - his major poll promise - which has virtually drained the state exchequer, leaving little elbow room for the government to take up other development works.

The waiver will cover about 44 lakh farmers who have borrowed crop loans from cooperative and nationalised banks up to Rs 2 lakh as on December 31, 2017. Also, crop loans up to Rs 1 lakh borrowed from cooperative sector till July 10, 2018, will also be waived. Farmers will have to fill up a simple application form with information on the outstanding loan. “The forms will be made available soon and they can be submitted at the citizen service centres or at the tahsildar offices,” Kumaraswamy said.