T’gana govt Issues guidelines for Rs 2L loan waiver scheme

Hyderabad: The Telangana Government, under the leadership of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, has released guidelines for implementing the agricultural loan waiver scheme, targeting loans up to Rs 2 lakh.

As per the Government Order (GO), this waiver applies to every farmer family owning land in Telangana. It is specifically designed for short-term crop loans and covers loans from scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, district cooperative central banks, and their respective branches within the state.

The scheme includes loans that were sanctioned or renewed on or after December 12, 2018, and covers crop loans outstanding as of December 9, 2023. Both the principal and interest amounts outstanding until December 9, 2023, are eligible for the waiver.

To determine eligible farmer families, the scheme will utilize the Food Security Card (PDS) database of the Civil Supplies Department. Eligible members within these families include the householder, their spouse, and children.

The implementation of the Crop Loan Waiver 2024 scheme will be overseen by the Commissioner and Director of Agriculture (DOA), in collaboration with the National Informatics Center (NIC) in Hyderabad. The Director of Agriculture and the State Bank of India (SBI) will jointly manage an IT portal dedicated to collecting and validating loan account data for each farmer family and determining the eligible waiver amounts. This portal will also facilitate bill submissions to the IFMIS portal maintained by the finance department, share information with scheme partners, and address farmers’ grievances.

For effective execution, a Bank Nodal Officer will be appointed in each participating bank. This officer will act as a liaison between the bank’s agriculture department managers and the NIC, and will be responsible for digitally signing the crop loan data for their respective banks.