BENGALURU: Struggling to raise resources to fulfil its poll promise of farm loan waiver, the Kumaraswamy government has sought help from the National Bank For Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) to disburse fresh loans for farmers.
Cooperation minister Bandeppa Kashempur has submitted a representation to this effect to Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh requesting the latter to issue necessary instructions to NABARD.
“NABARD is presently providing 40% of the funding for rural and cooperative banks. About 28 lakh farmers in the state have obtained loans from nationalised banks and another 22 lakh from cooperative
banks. There are about 28 lakh farmers who have not received loans from any banks. We want to provide loan assistance for them too with assistance from NABARD by requesting the latter to raise its funding to 75%,” Kashempur sad here on Monday.
The request has come in the backdrop of the challenge being faced by the state government to raise resources to waive Rs 43,000-crore farm loans disbursed through cooperative and nationalised banks.
About Rs 2,500 crore will be available for disbursing fresh farm loans if NABARD agrees to the state’s request, Bandeppa said.
Referring to the recent announcement made by Kumaraswamy to release funds to waive farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh availed from cooperative banks, Bandeppa said the process to issue debt-free certificates for these farmers will start within the next few days.