Suggesting a crop loan helpline for 14 suicide-prone districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, a Maharashtra government-appointed taskforce has told the government to bring at least 80 per cent of
Suggesting a crop loan helpline for 14 suicide-prone districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, a Maharashtra government-appointed taskforce has told the government to bring at least 80 per cent of farmers into the institutional credit net. The task force was appointed by the government to come up with suggestions to improve plight of the farmers and reduce suicides among them.
“We have suggested setting up village and taluka-level crop loan committees comprising ground staff and the sarpanch, which will prepare a list of hardships being faced by credit-starved farmers. Tehsildars, block development officers, taluka agriculture officers and other government and bank officers along with the local MLA should be a part of the committee. They should be empowered to take corrective action so that smooth crop loan disbursement is done, said Kishore Tiwari who heads the task force, Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission said.
He further said all banks should put big flex boards requesting farmers to come for fresh crop loans, and contact numbers of all senior bank officials, the district collector and the VNSSM chairman should be displayed prominently. The suggestion came after it was found that the farmers do not get loan easily from nationalised banks and are forced to seek help of money lenders.
“The banks that do not comply with government norms of disbursing loans should be sent a notice for criminal action and a list of such banks should be sent to the Reserve Bank of India for action,” Mr Tiwari said.
He also demanded that the district collector should appoint a nodal officer for each bank branch, which would be required to provide a daily update of crop loan disbursement.
“If banks do not act fast and provide crop loans, 50 per cent of farmers would be forced to borrow from private lenders at higher rates or abandon sowing altogether.
If timely action of restructuring old dues and granting fresh loans is not taken, farmers would not be able to take advantage of a good monsoon expected this year,”
Mr Tiwari said in his letter to Mr Fadnavis. The state has been witnessing growing number of suicides in Marathwada region and drought this year has added in the farmers’ woes. The government has taken a number of initiatives to curb the suicides.
