G S Asgotra
Early Times Reoprt
Jammu, Aug 24: Govt's assurance in the budget to waive off 50 percent Kisan Credit Card (KCC) loans of farmers is proving merely a rhetoric as after lapse of more than five months, the State government has not notified any communiqué to banks regarding waiving off KCC loans.
Source informed Early Times that in March 2015, the government had announced that it was going to waive off 50% KCC loans and sanctioned Rs 150 crores, for vulnerable farmers across the state, who had outstanding balance of Rs one lakh but due to lackadaisical attitude of incumbent government, the announcement has not been executed on ground level so far.
He further said, "Bank authorities are compelling farmers to deposit KCC installments as soon as possible, otherwise they (Banks) will take stern action against the defaulter and cancel their credit limit", adding that it has created chaos among the farmer community.
He further said that the statement of government was a ray of hope for farmer, those who were under debt." Unfortunately despite keenness by the administration to uplift farmer community, the ambitious project has not taken of due to lackadaisical bureaucracy", he regretted.
A farmer of Border village of district Samba said that last year, due to unseasonal heavy rain and hailstorms, in which the farmers have immensely lost their standing crops. "Unfortunately, since then either previous or incumbent coalition government have made only announcements for compensation to farmers but nothing has been done on ground , exposing tall claims of PDP- BJP government before election", he said.
He further said that the purpose of Kisan credit cards had been defeated, for which, the government had started this ambitious scheme, adding, "If the government failed to waive off KCC loans of farmers than, it will compel marginalized farmers to depend upon money lenders rather than banks", he asserted. |
