Explained: What is the New Farm Loan Waiver Scheme of Jharkhand and Who is Eligible for it

A farm loan waiver scheme with a cumulative budget of Rs 2,000 crore was authorised by the Jharkhand cabinet on Wednesday. Who is worthy and what is the scheme? How is it going to be implemented? We're explaining:

Jharkhand farm loan waiver scheme: who is eligible? What is it?

The loan waiver mechanism would provide relief to the state's 7.83 lakh farmers. Besides this, for 1.24 lakh growers, Rs 50,000 will be waived. The cap for each farmer is Rs 50,000. The money will be paid to their respective banks by the government. There will be eligibility for both landlords and landless farmers. Over the redemption period, the farmer should have the payment returned at least once.

How many farmers are in Jharkhand, and how much is the loan for a farm?

In Jharkhand, the number of farmers varies from 22 lakh to 32 lakh, with most single crop growers.

Upon the amount of due farm loan, there are two estimates available. There are 12.93 Lakh farmers with farm loans in Jharkhand. In September, in the state assembly, the government said that Rs 7,000 crore was due. However, on Wednesday it was said at a Cabinet briefing the total amount due was Rs 5,800 crore. What would happen to the remaining farmers remains uncertain.

In the first step of the implementation, what will happen?

Three major banks, the State Bank of India, Bank of India, and Jharkhand Gramin Bank, which have 77 percent of the total loans, will plan for the first phase of implementation, as per the minutes of the meeting of the Agriculture Department and State Level Bankers Committee. On December 29, however, only 10,500 farmers can benefit, on a sample basis, from 10,500 'Ordinary KCC' crop loan accounts.

What systems are involved? 

The implementation will be performed manually in the first step. Banks will receive approved copies of Aadhaar and ration cards from farmers and hold them for either uploading or generating to the competent authority on a web portal. Online seeding of Aadhaar with the respective KCC loan accounts were carried out. The banks will charge for the service to the farmers Re 1.