BENGALURU: In his attempt to chalk out modalities for the massive farm loan waiver, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday, held meetings with presidents and managing directors of district cooperative banks, officials of Karnataka state Apex bank and cooperation department, including ministers Bandeppa Kashempur, Shivashankar Reddy and Shivanand Patil.
Cooperation minister Kashempur has made an appeal to waive loans of about Rs11,000 crore in cooperative banks and societies which will now be considered by the Chief Minister. The meeting was an attempt to gauge the burden on the department if a full loan waiver is implemented. Kumaraswamy has pegged the additional burden of waiver at Rs 17,000 crore.
“Nobody is opposing the farm loan waiver. In fact, representatives of cooperative societies have agreed to waive more loans. I have collected all the information and will soon announce a decision,” Kumaraswamy said after the meeting.
The previous Siddaramaiah government had waived loans up to `50,000 from cooperative banks at the cost of Rs 8,165 crore. “I have requested the Chief Minister to waive the pending `11,000 crore loans from cooperative societies and make farmers debt-free. It is being considered,” said Bandeppa Kashempur, minister for cooperation. The minister, who was part of the meeting, added that a clear announcement on the waiver, at least from cooperative societies, will be made in the budget.
“Questions are being raised about how we will fund the waiver. Farmers need to benefit out of the waiver, and not middlemen. I have to ensure that the waiver helps poor farmers,” Kumaraswamy said while chiding officials for “not having faith” in his government’s stability.
The government is in the process of weighing options for a phase-wise farm loan waiver beginning with cooperative societies for crop loans. “Farmers will definitely get good news in this budget. Not just for small and marginal farmers, an appeal has been made to waive loans of all farmers. But, for now, it will only be for crop loans,” Kashempur told reporters after the meeting.