TN delta farmers welcome co-op loan waiver, urge write-off of commercial bank debts too

THANJAVUR/TIRUVARUR: Farmers from the Cauvery delta districts of Thanjavur and Tiruvarur welcomed the Chief Minister's announcement that crop loans availed by farmers from Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) would be waived.

They also urged the government to make good the crop loans of farmers who have borrowed from commercial banks including nationalised ones.

K A Koothalingam, a farmer from Pallathur near Pattukkottai in Thanjavur district, said the announcement is welcome. "This waiver would be of great help to farmers whose crops were damaged due to the unseasonal rains last month," Koothalingam who has an outstanding loan amount of Rs 1 lakh in a cooperative bank told The New Indian Express.

N V Kannan, a farmer from Rayamundanpatti and the district secretary of Tamil Nadu Farmers Association (AIKS), said the farmers associations and farmers have been demanding this waiver for long. He further added for the last two years, cooperative banks were not advancing pure crop loans based on land documents and only issuing loans with gold jewels as collaterals besides getting land documents. "Hence many farmers availed crop loans from the scheduled commercial banks and the government should also come forward for arranging waiver of these loans," he added.

P S Masilamani, a farmer from Tiruvarur and state deputy general secretary of Tamil Nadu farmers association, pointed out that they have staged protests across 100 places recently for loan waiver. He also welcomed the announcement by the Chief Minister and noted that farmers could not get new loans from PACCS of late and were dependent on nationalised banks and other scheduled commercial banks. Hence the state government should impress upon the Union government to waive the loans taken by farmers from these banks or the state government should come forward to pay back these banks on behalf of the farmers.