Cooperative banks disburse loans worth Rs 4,308cr

Chandigarh, Mar 29 (UNI) The Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks have disbursed a loan of Rs 4,308 crore to 10.51 lakh members since inception and the rate of interest for agricultural loan has recently been reduced, Minister of State for Cooperation Meena Mandal said here today.

The Cooperative Banks also disbursed a loan of Rs 2,941 crore to the farmers upto December last with a view to provide easy and adequate credit and other allied facilities to the farmers.

The minister said these banks had disbursed Rs 302.68 crore as loan during 2005-06. The present government had reduced the rate on interest on short term agriculture loans from 11 per cent to 10 per cent on May 1, 2005, she said adding that the interest rates on the loan had been slashed from 10 per cent to 7 per cent from April 1, 2006.

Ms Mandal said the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act, 1984 had been amended and the provision under which the over due amount of cooperative loans was being recovered as arrears of land revenue had been deleted. No farmer would now be arrested for the recovery of cooperative loans in the state, she added.

The state government had given the highest sugarcane price in the country at the rate of Rs 138 per quintal. The rate of acquisition of land had also been recently enhanced by the Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda which would prove a boon to the farmers, she said.

UNI