TN Govt to grant Rs 1,360 cr farm loans in 2007-08

Chennai, Sep 4 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said his Government proposed to grant Rs 1,360 crore as farm loans to farmers in the State during 2007-08.

Reacting to AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa's agitational programme in Thanjavur and other delta districts of the state in support of farmers tomorrow, the Chief Minister, giving details of the farm loans granted to ryots, alleged that Ms Jayalalithaa had no locus standi to talk about farmers.

Mr Karunanidhi said that after the DMK had come to power in May last, cooperative banks in the State had sanctioned farm loans to the tune of Rs 1,251 crore to 6,31,283 peasants in 2006-07.

This year, it was proposed to sanction Rs 1,360 crore loans and the Government had given to the banks Rs 188 crore towards share money and Rs 58 crore towards interest, he added.

In the delta districts of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur, where Ms Jayalalithaa had announced agitations to protest against the non-release of farm loans, the Chief Minister said the DMK Government had given loans to the tune of Rs 167 crore in 2006-07, as against Rs 56 crore sanctioned during the previous Jayalalithaa regime in 2005-06.

Refuting AIADMK leader's charge that farmers were not given loans at all, he said in this year alone, 1,20,791 farmers have been issued loans worth Rs 255 crore.

On her charge that seeds and fertilisers were not made available to farmers, Mr Karunanidhi said farmers in the State have been distributed 15,116 metric tonnes of paddy seed and the Government had a stock of 33,607 metric tonnes.

For Samba and Thaladi cultivation, the Government had made available 1.11 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers and it had a stock of 58,000 metric tonnes. There was no shortage of seeds and fertilisers, he added.

UNI