New Delhi: Thirty-one districts in the counrty have been identified as farmer-suicide-prone, the Government told the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Stating the Government intended to make available short-term farm credit to maximum agriculturists, Finance Minister P Chidambaram admitted in the House that tenant farmers were finding it difficult to avail short-term credit loan at seven per cent due to lack of documents and steps were underway to overcome this problem.
Replying to questions, he said that all government banks, including Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), had been instructed to disburse short-term farm credit at seven per cent from Kharif season this year and if any bank violated this, severest action would be taken within 48 hours of receipt of complaint.
In response to some members' demands, he ruled out making farm loans available at rates lower than seven per cent in the "circumstances we find ourselves.”
"Thirty-one districts in the country have been identified as suicide-prone by the Ministry of Agriculture," Chidambaram said.
16 of these districts are in Andhra Pradesh, six each in Maharashtra and Karnataka and three in Kerala, he said adding special packages were being worked out for farmers in these districts.
He said that a special package had already been decided for suicide-prone districts of Maharashtra after a proposal was received from the state.
Chidambaram also said that the Government intends to extend farm credit to as many farmers as possible at reasonable rates and added his ministry will implement the package with regard to others whenever a decision on it is taken.
The farmers owning land are able to avail such credit but tenant farmers, who are usually the smallest of the agriculturists, have difficulty in getting the loan from institutional banks, the Finance Minister said.
The difficulty arises from the absence of titles and evidence, he said adding efforts are being made to get over it through Self-Help Groups and Joint Liability mechanism.
He said that the target of reaching such credit to small farmers is higher this year than last year.
He said that he was holding meetings with bank chiefs regularly as part of an exercise to ensure continuous monitoring.
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Describing suicides by farmers as a "matter of distress "for which everyone was unhappy, Chidambaram said the issue should be kept out of competitive politics.
The target for disbursement to the sector during 2006-07 is Rs 1,75,000 crore which is likely to be surpassed, he said.
During 2005-06, the Government granted two per cent relief on interest on short term credit from banks and an amount of Rs 1700 crore was released for the purpose, Chidamabaram said.
Guidelines have been issued to banks to provide short-term production credit for 2006-07 up to a principal of Rs three lakh at 7 per cent per annum, he said.
Referring to Vidarbha region of Maharashtra where several farmers have committed suicides, the Finance Minister said commercial banks, cooperative banks and RRBs operating there have been advised to ensure that all the farmers' loan accounts which are overdue on July one, 2006 are rescheduled on the lines of the package and the interest thereon is waived.
The estimated amount of interest on overdue loans in the six suicide-prone districts of the region was Rs 712 crore on July 1.
Besides, a steering committee of the state-level bankers' committee is monitoring the progress of implementation of the package, he said.
District teams have also been constituted with representatives from NABARD, RBI and banks to monitor the implementation of the package at the field level, he said.
On the package announced for six suicide-prone districts in Vidarbha, he said the overdue loans of farmers as on July one would be rescheduled over a period of 3-5 years with a one-year moratorium.
An additional credit flow of Rs 1275 crore will be ensured in these six districts in 2006-07.
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