The State government has asked bankers to extend the deadline for rescheduling crop loans up to June this year and ensure that farmers are given fresh loans for rabi at the earliest.

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has requested the banks to work out modalities to ensure that farmers are not made to pay extra interest on account of rescheduling of loans. Considering the disadvantage faced by the farmers on account of heavy interest charged on rescheduled loans, the State government is trying to impress upon the Centre to ensure that ryots are spared of the burden of interest.

Addressing the State-Level Bankers' Committee meeting here on Wednesday, Mr. Reddy said the government had announced its decision to extend interest waiver on kharif loans obtained by the farmers in 680 mandals hit by rain/cyclone.

The banks which had extended Rs.11,637 crore for kharif, however, rescheduled only Rs. 981 crore (9 per cent) thus far.

Tenant farmers

Urging banks to extend loans to tenant farmers too, he said a bill for protection of interest of tenant farmers was introduced in the Assembly, but could not be passed.

An ordinance would be promulgated shortly to enable about 40 lakh tenant farmers to secure access to crop loans, insurance, input subsidy and agriculture inputs.

The government had issued orders for repayment of 100 per cent principal amount pertaining to loans obtained by handloom weavers instead of 75 per cent prescribed earlier. The banks should accordingly write off such loans and address the claims to Director, Handlooms and Textiles.

The Chief Minister stressed the need for the banks to extend more loans to self-help groups to prevent the women members from approaching micro-finance institutions for loans. “Banks need to increase their lending and further subsidise the interest to enable women overcome the MFI problem,” he said.

Andhra Bank Chairman R. Ramachandran, who is the SLBC Chairman, expressed concern over staff members being beaten up by the family members of beneficiaries. Incidents like these needed to be tackled effectively by inculcating credit discipline among beneficiaries, he said.

Ministers K. Venkata Krishna Reddy, Sunita Lakshma Reddy and K. Parthasarathy explained the difficulties faced at the grass- root level to enable beneficiaries secure linkages, and wanted the banks to be more pro-active in this direction.