Worried over reoccurring farm suicides, the Government in clear terms has conveyed to bankers not to eye for income coming from other sources to any farmer to feed their farm loans.
The instruction holds importance in the light of a farmer of Giridih who committed suicide allegedly due to such adjustments which were made against the KCC loan pending against his name a few months ago.
The issue came for discussion at 61st State level Bankers’ Committee (SlBC) meeting on Friday. Agriculture Secretary Pooja Singhal said that the practice adopted by the banks was sending wrong message down the line and also taking a dent on the image of the Government.
“Fund or benefits of any other welfare scheme coming to beneficiaries accounts should not be adjusted against the KCC loan sanctioned by the banks. We have come across several such cases that push already distressed persons further into trouble. The action of yours is sending wrong message about welfare schemes and often results into such extreme outcomes,” said the Secretary in the presence of all top banks officials, RBI Regional Director Patric Barla besides, Additional Chief Secretary Amit Khare and Joint Secretary with Department of Financial Services (DFS) Madanesh Mishra.
later, Rural Development Secretary Avinash Kumar also seconded the views of Singhal. Notably, farm loan in the State is just 18 per cent of total advances which is below the national benchmark.
Although Jharkhand has shown good results in enrolling 15 lakh farmers under the PMFBY this year but just 1.3 lakh of them have been given the coverage.
Another major issue that came to fore was delayed transfer of DBT into beneficiaries’ bank accounts and also some with ‘cuts’ made in handing over actual money.
“We are getting some reports where the subsidy is taking too much time in getting credited into back accounts. In the case of Nagri that has gone adopting DBT in PDS, you need to place banking correspondents locally who can handover money to the beneficiaries without taking anything in return.
Otherwise the entire idea of DBT would degenerate,” said Amit Khare.