The debt waiver scheme launched by the Tamil Nadu government for the farmers is going to provide great relief to the farmers. In this, the loan of 12110 crore rupees of farmers will be forgiven.
For more than 16 lakh farmers of Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Saturday launched the loan waiver scheme in Tamil Nadu worth Rs 12,110 crore. He gave loan waiver certificate to 9 farmers on Saturday. In this certificate it has been said that the arrears of the loans taken by the farmers till January 31, 2021 have been forgiven. A release in this regard has been issued by the state government.
Senior officials led by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, Agriculture Minister KP Ambalagan and Chief Secretary Rajiv Ranjan participated in the loan waiver program organized at the state secretariat. Palaniswamy had announced to waive crop loans of Rs 12,110.74 crore taken by 16,43,347 farmers on 5 February itself. He said that this will pave the way for farmers to continue farming without any hindrance.
Which farmers will get the benefit of the scheme?
The debt waiver scheme launched by the Tamil Nadu government for the farmers is going to provide great relief to the farmers. In this, the loan of 12110 crore rupees of farmers will be forgiven. The benefit of the loan waiver scheme will be given to those farmers who took loans from corporates ie cooperative banks. The benefit of this decision will be directly to 16.43 lakh farmers.
Tamil Nadu govt rolls out Rs 12,110 crore crop loan waiver scheme; CM gives away certificates to farmers
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 13, 2021
1117 crore crop loss will also be compensated
The state government had earlier announced other schemes for farmers on 1 February. Then Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced that the Tamil Nadu government would provide Rs 1,116.97 crore to 11.43 lakh farmers across the state to compensate for the damage to crops due to the rains in January.
It was then told that the assistance amount will be given directly through DBTL to the bank accounts of the farmers. CM Palaniswami had said that due to heavy rains, a total of 6,62,689 hectares of agricultural crops and 18,645 hectares of horticultural crops were destroyed. He then said that taking cognizance of the problems of the farmers, the government has announced more assistance than the guidelines of the State Disaster Relief Fund for the farmers affected by the preventive and bad cyclones.
Debt waiver was announced in the assembly
The Chief Minister had announced loan waiver of farmers under Rule 110 in the state assembly. Then he had said that the crop loan of Rs 12,110 crore taken by the farmers from the cooperative banks of the state would be forgiven. Only then did he say that due to cyclonic storms (Nivar), Burevi and heavy rains in the state, the situation of the farmers is in bad shape, which is being decided.
There was a lot of loss due to heavy rain
In January, Tamil Nadu received heavy rainfall, causing major damage to crops. Between January 1 and February 5, the state received several times more rainfall than normal. During this time, the most paddy crop was damaged. A central team was also sent to the state to assess the losses caused to farmers by heavy rains.
According to the press release issued by the Pudukottai district administration of the state, crops of paddy, corn, groundnut, etc. were severely damaged due to rain in the state. In the state of Thanjavur district, apart from paddy and groundnut, pulses crop was also severely damaged. In the Virudhunnagar district, crops of paddy, pulses, cotton etc. were damaged due to rain. The state government’s decisions taken in the interest of the farmers are expected to provide considerable relief to the farmers.