Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath-led UP government's much-hyped farm loan waiver has come as a shock to many small-scale farmers who received waivers worth amounts as meager as 19 paisa and 50 paisa.
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 totaling Rs 7,371 crore have been waived in the first phase.
In Etawah district, the government handed over the certificate of waiving off 19 and 50 paise to the dismay of several poor farmers.
"The government waived only 19 paisa. I have spent a lot till now, have visited a number of officials, but it’s sad that I have only received 19 paisa of relief," news agency ANI quoted one Ishwar Dayal saying.
Another farmer Lalaram received a compensation of 50 paisa.“We are very sad with this. It would have been better had they not given anything,” he said.
Reports said, in Hamirpur one Nirmala Devi of Umri village got a loan waiver of just Rs 10.37 against a loan of Rs 1.55 lakh, while Munni Lal of Maudaha village was given a loan waiver certificate of Rs 215 against his loan of Rs 40,000.
Yunus Khan, another farmer who had an unpaid loan of Rs 60,000 got a waiver certificate in which he was given relief for just Rs 38, a TV channel's website reported.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday 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 meager 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.
The state ministers reportedly blamed it on typing error or faulty software. Asked about the meager amounts, minister Manohar Lal, who distributed the certificates on Monday, said it was due to either a misprint or a fault with the software being used to prepare the certificates.
He said the issue will be rectified soon.
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