Hyderabad, March 31: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today asked the bankers in the state to extend the time for rescheduling of crop loans up to June.
The extension of time for loan repayment would help the farmers, who have been battered by frequent heavy rains and cyclones, he said, addressing a meeting of State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) here.
Reddy appealed to bankers to reduce the interest on the rescheduled loans.
The state government had announced total interest waiver and loans rescheduling for farmers in 680 mandals where crops were totally damaged, the CM stated.
However, the farmers are not coming forward to reschedule their loans as interest rates are high, he said, adding the government would pay the funds towards interest waiver once the banks furnished the details.
While the annual credit plan has been set at Rs 65,763 crore for 2010-11, only Rs 53,572 crore have been achieved till December 31. The Chief Minister expressed confidence that the target would be achieved by the end of this month.
He announced his government would bring an ordinance for the protection of tenant farmers. “Unfortunately, we could not get it passed in the Assembly session (that concluded yesterday).
But we will issue an ordinance soon.”
There are about 22 lakh tenant farmers in the state as per official records and they will be given identity cards soon for providing financing, he said.
Highlighting the need to provide loans to women self- help groups (SHGs), Reddy pointed out only Rs 6,740 crore has been given to them against the target of Rs Rs 7,776 crore.
-PTI