In a good beginning for the farming community in Telangana in the next financial year, those who have borrowed crop loans from commercial and cooperative banks and have outstanding debt up to ₹25,000 would soon be given cheques to clear the debt as part of the farm loan waiver scheme.
The major announcement from the point of view of the farming community formed part of the budget speech of Minister of Finance T. Harish Rao in the Legislative Assembly on Sunday. The dole was promised by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) before the December 2018 Assembly elections.
According to the Minister, there are 5,83,916 farmers in the State who have outstanding loans up to ₹25,000. As the State government has decided to waive their loans completely in one go, an amount of ₹1,198 crore would be released during the current (March) month itself for the purpose. In a move to strike a sync with the farming community directly, the cheques of the loan waiver would be directly given to the farmers, instead of the regular practice of releasing the amount to the banks, and they would distributed by legislators.
Further, the farmers who have taken institutional credit and have debt over ₹25,000 and up to ₹1 lakh would, however, be given the benefit in four instalments spread across the next four years as it requires a huge amount of ₹24,738 crore. Cheques pertaining to the loan waiver scheme beyond ₹25,000 would also be given directly to the farmers by the legislators concerned.
The Minister for Finance told the Assembly in his budget speech that an allocation of ₹6,225 crore has been made for the loan waiver scheme during 2020-21.
In its continuing bid to ensure support price to farmers raising major crops such as paddy, maize, redgram and others, the State government has allocated ₹1,000 crore towards market intervention fund for the next fiscal. Similarly, continuing its thrust on micro irrigation to make optimum use of the available water, the government has provided another ₹600 crore for implementing the scheme with subsidy of 100%, 90% and 80% to different categories of farmers.
In the socio-economic outlook for the next fiscal, the government has estimated that crop is estimated to grow at 23.7% with the help of improved irrigation facilities and other support such as investment support (Rythu Bandhu) and subsidised seed supply. Similarly, the allied livestock and fishing sectors are estimated to grow at 17.3% and 8.1%, respectively with development of water bodies, free fish seed supply, sheep distribution and others.