Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has shot off a letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley eliciting his attention to the loss being suffered by the farmers in Uttarakhand after the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,00 notes.
The CM's media adviser Surendra Kumar said that in his letter to the Union Finance Minister, the CM has requested that currency be provided to cooperative banks to facilitate agricultural loans to farmers, to extend the period of Rabi crop insurance till February 15, 2017 and to ensure complete flow of cash in the currency chest of the State.
In his letter, the Chief Minister writes to Jaitley that since the denomenation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, the cooperative banks have not been accepting deposits. After harvest of the Kharif crop, the farmers are unable to deposit their earnings in their own accounts in the cooperative banks. As a result of this, the farmers are not being able to secure agricultural loans to purchase seeds, fertiliser and other articles for the Rabi crop. This has led to situation with full probability of a detrimental effect being exerted on the Rabi crop this time in Uttarakhand.
The Chief Minister further states that the farmers are not being able to deposit their money in the primary agriculture cooperative committees and district cooperative banks which in turn is turning them into loan defaulters on the loans that they had secured from these bodies. This in turn is also exerting a bad impact on the credit limits of the farmers. The State Government is making full effort to open accounts of farmers in the district cooperative banks and other scheduled commercial banks.
The district administration has been issued directions to hold camps on daily basis for this purpose. But, due to the scarcity of cash in the cooperative banks, they are not in a position to provide farmers the agricultural loans they seek for the Rabi season. Currency in cash also needs to be provided to the cooperative sector, stressed the chief minister in his letter.
The CM has stated that the demonetisation move is causing a delay in the sowing of the Rabi season which is later also bound to exert an impact on the production.
Taking this factor into consideration, the period of insurance for the Rabi crop should be extended up to February 15, 2017. In the current time, the priority of the commercial banks is the management of cash which in turn is also affecting aspects like loan for agriculture and other activities.
In such circumstances, the banks should be issued instructions to deploy additional staff to tackle such difficult conditions. The chief minister further stated that the banks in Uttarakhand have issued 80 per cent debit cards but due to activation-related issue, there is need for issuance of new pre-activated cards from the banks. The rate of Aadhar nomination in Uttarakhand is 85 per cent but only 60 per cent of the people have been able to receive their Aadhar cards. Considering this, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that the people be provided their Aadhar cards as early as possible. Rawat further informed the union finance minister that there is still a considerable problem of cash in Uttarakhand which is affecting banks, commerce, industry, farmers, labourers and various other sectors. The necessary instructions should be issued to ensure that there is adequate flow of currency in the currency chest of the Uttarakhand State, the CM further asked.