Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Jul 13: Bending under pressure brought on him by various parties and leaders, Karnataka chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy, announced that current agricultural loans availed from cooperative societies in the state, which amount to Rs 10,700 crore, would also be waived in addition to the waiver already announced by him earlier. Loans availed by agriculturists till July 10 would be waived under the scheme which will benefit 22.23 lac farmers, he added.
The Chalti loans denote those loans which are granted to farmers in cooperative societies at zero percent interest up to three lac rupees, and at three percent interest up to ten lac rupees, which can be renewed. The total outstanding under this head as on date is around Rs 11,700 crore. Overdue loans are those which are availed under this head but stand unpaid.
The chief minister announced this decision in his reply to debate on the state budget in the Assembly on Thursday July 12. All farmers who have availed loans from cooperative institutions up to one lac rupees will get benefit of this scheme. The government will have to bear an additional Rs 5,000 crore because of this additional coverage. It is learnt that overdue loans of farmers of the state standing in nationalized banks totalling to Rs 29,279 crore would also be waived. Kumaraswamy asserted that he has taken a decision as above after considering all aspects carefully and duly ascertaining current position of loans in different banks.
The government has also dropped the proposal to prune rice being issued under Anna Bhagya scheme from seven kg to five kg per month to each ration card holder. With this, the chief minister has met the demand made by former chief minister, Siddaramaiah, in his letter, to restore seven kg rice per ration card holder per month as before, which will put additional burden of Rs 2,500 crore on the government. However, the CM has outright rejected the proposals to withdraw taxes imposed on electricity and fuel, besides clarifying that issuing free bus passes to all the students in the state is not feasible.
The chief minister said that power consumers will marginally pay higher, and their burden is only Rs 188 crore per year, which works out to ten rupees per user per month. He said that even after this tax, prices of petrol and diesel in Karnataka, are lowest as compared to other states including those ruled by BJP. In reply to the allegation that nothing has been done for the development of minorities, he said that a sum of Rs 2,500 crore has been allocated for them.
On the request of the speaker to waive loans of Sthree Shakthi self-help groups having 11 lac members amounting to a thousand crore, the chief minister said he will consider this demand and take a decision later.
Although the BJP members staged a walkout on various issues, the house gave its approval for the state budget.