Govt to distribute Rs 1500 cr farm loans for Kharif crops

Bangalore, May 24 (UNI) Karnataka Government will provide Rs 1500 crore towards agriculture loans to farmers for the coming Kharif season, Co-operation Minister G T Devegowda announced today.

Speaking to newspersons here he said the officials had already recovered Rs 725 crore from the farmers across the state and the recovery per centage was likely to speed up in the coming days. The Government had already provided Rs 2,440 crore during 2006-07 to farmers under various categories of crop loans, he added.

Mr Devengowda said, as assured, the Government had waived short-term loan and interest of 6.39 lakh farmers, amounting to Rs 942 crore, availed between January 1 2006 and December 31, 2006.

Over four lakh farmers had availed about Rs 25,000 crop loan, amounting to Rs 1,055 crore, he added.

The minister said anyone who h ad already repaid their loans, would be given fixed deposit certificates, carrying an interest of four per cent, that could be redeemed after three years.

He said the loan facility was also available to fishermen and weavers across the state.

Under Yeshaswini healthcare programme, about 3.40 lakh farmers had been treated as outpatients and 34,236 had undergone surgery for various ailments. Over 18.70 lakh farmers had registered under the scheme, he added.

UNI