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Farmer groups across the country have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining that the “disruption’’ caused by demonetisation in rural areas could not be addressed by the inadequate sops announced on December 30.
They demanded more measures such as removal of all restrictions on deposits and withdrawals from cooperative banks, extension of loan waivers, and increase in scale of finance under the krishi credit scheme.
“In villages all over India, there are numerous tales of hardship and woes such as agricultural workers not being paid in time by farmers owing to shortage of cash, farmers cutting back on investments on crop management, farmers not able to sell their produce with traders having no cash and, importantly, prices of perishables crashing and loanee farmers from cooperative banks not even being able to repay their loans,” the farmer groups’ representatives stated in the letter.
There are also the hardships of returning migrant workers, who are unable to find work outside villages in other sectors, it added.
The farmer groups, that are joint signatories of the letter, include the All-India Coordination Committee of Farmers Movement, Bhartiya Kisan Union, Laghu Simant Krishak Morach, Shetkari Sanghathana and Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Association, among others.
The most significant negative fall-out of the entire demonetisation process is the destruction that is taking place of the rural cooperative banking sector, the letter pointed out.
“Cooperative banks should be immediately brought on a par with other banks and all restrictions on deposits and withdrawals from the cooperative banks should be withdrawn,” it added.
The farmer groups also demanded that a loan waiver for all farmers should be immediately announced owing to the massive disruptions caused in the agricultural activities in this season.
With increased NABARD funding, soft loans should be extended to Joint Liability Groups and Self Help Groups, the letter said.
Further, in the kisan credit scheme, the scale of finance should be increased, interest rates should be lowered and agriculture credit expanded for more coverage.
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