Karnataka will meet demand of agriculture loan: Minister

Bangalore, July 10 (UNI) Karnataka Minister for Cooperation G T Deve Gowda today assured the members in the Karnataka Legislative Council that the state government has enough resources to meet the demands of the agricultural loan for the current season.

Replying to a discussion on the call attention motion of Congress member Mr Prathapachandra Shetty on the quantum of farm loan waived by the state government, Mr Gowda said as many as 1,045,286 of the farmers had benefited from the scheme accounting Rs 2,300 crore availed through cooperative institutions.

The government had released Rs 750 crore to the various District Cooperative Credit (DCC) Banks and another Rs 671 crore farm loans was recovered from the farmers, the minister said and added the NABARD had promised to release Rs 830 crore to refinance against the disbursement of fresh farm loan for the current Kharif season.

The total expected demand for short-term crop loans from the agriculturists for 2007-08 was estimated as Rs 3,000 crore and the government had taken all measures to meet it, he said.

Brushing aside the opposition charges that the government had failed miserably to disburse fresh farm loans following its inability to release the balance amount of Rs 1,300 crore to various DCC banks, the minister said finace department was instructed to pay 12 per cent of interest till DCC banks were reimbursed full amount.

More UNI