Banks in Telangana will have to form Joint Mandal Level Bankers Committee (JMLBCs) to ascertain the exact number of farmers that availed loans from them. A social audit will be conducted in villages to check the veracity of claims. The Mandal Revenue Officers will also vet the list to weed out fake claims and also those accounts based on fake pattadar passbooks (Title Deeds). They will also cross check whether the loanees have farm land.
As it takes the responsibility of clearing the loans, the State Government has asked the bankers should commence fresh lending of crop loans immediately for the ongoing kharif season.
The Government has released modalities to implement the loan waiver scheme that is expected to cost the exchequer about Rs 20,000 crore. Fulfilling its poll promise, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Government agreed to waive loans up to Rs 1 lakh for a farm family with a cut-off date of March 31, 2014.
After they received money from the Government, respective branch managers of lending institutions will give a certificate to farmers, giving details of the waiver.
The scheme will cover short-term production loans and crop loans against gold given by banks, cooperative credit institutions and regional rural banks. It, however, does not cover advances taken against pledge of hypothecation of agriculture produce and closed crop loan accounts.
The Government Order released late Wednesday evening asked the lending institutions to prepare a village-wise list of the farmers eligible for the waiver scheme with a cap of Rs 1 lakh. After preparing the detailed lists, the banks should talk to one another and check against duplication.
“If a farmer family has multiple accounts but overall outstanding of crop loan is less than Rs 1 lakh, then their name will not be deleted in the lists of different banks. If the outstanding loan is more than Rs 1 lakh, then the name will be retained in the bank where the farmer family first availed the crop loan or where the outstanding amount is higher,” Poonam Malakondaiah, Principal Secretary to Telangana Government, has said in the order.
Farmers who have grievances with regard to the implementation can make representations to mandal, district and state-level monitoring committees.