UP: Over 11,000 farmers get waiver for loans of Rs 1-500

Lucknow, Sep 13: Over 11,700 farmers in Uttar Pradesh received relief for outstanding debt amount ranging from Re 1 to Rs 500 under the state government's farm loan waiver scheme, under which loans totalling Rs 7,371 crore have been waived in the first phase.

The Uttar Pradesh government today said outstanding loans of 11.93 lakh small and marginal farmers were waived in the first phase of implementation of the debt waiver scheme. Loan amounts ranging from Re 1 to Rs 100 of as many as 4,814 farmers have been waived, an official release said.

As many as 6,895 farmers received benefit for loans of Rs 100 to Rs 500, the release said. The number of farmers who have been given redemption in the Rs 500 to Rs 1000 bracket are 5,553, the release said.

As many as 41,690 farmers have benefited from waiver of loans between Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000. For loans of Rs 10,000 and above, the number of eligible farmers is 11,27,890, it added. "Where the principal amount has been repaid by the farmer, the interest amount, even if small, has been redeemed under the scheme.

In some cases, a wrong impression has been created that only a meagre amount has been redeemed," a state government spokesperson told PTI. The state government has announced a Rs 32,000 crore scheme to waive farm loans of up to Rs 1 lakh by lending institution as on or before March 31, 2016.

PTI