Loan waiver for SC/STs taken as relief and not a policy decision
Hyderabad, March 6, 2008Seeking to stave off criticism that the Centre's loan waiver scheme would benefit defaulting farmers, the Congress Government in the State has decided in principle to extend the facility to those farmers who have promptly repaid their debts. The State Government will initially request the Centre to somehow allow the benefit of waiver to all farmers or, at least, bear the financial burden partially. If there is no positive response from the Centre, the Government may work out a scheme on its own.
Chief Minister, Dr.YS Rajasekhara Reddy held detailed discussions with the Ministers and senior officials on Thursday on the loan waiver scheme. Apart from the Opposition's criticism, the Chief Minister has himself expressed reservations on the scheme benefiting only the defaulters while ignoring those farmers who repaid their debts sincerely. He is credited with the view that it would benefit only fifty percent of small and marginal farmers even though the expenditure on it in the State would be around Rs.10,000 crore.
Later, speaking to media, the Finance Minister, K Rosaiah said that the Government would formulate its plan once the Centre issued guidelines on the scheme which would reveal the actual number of beneficiary farmers and also the extent of the financial assistance burden. He further said that another scheme on the anvil, also outside the budget proposals was to ensure sale of some more essential commodities in addition to rice to card holders at subsided prices and thus arrest inflationary trend in the open market.
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