CHANDIGARH: More than 6.64 lakh farmers of Haryana have been benefited to the tune of Rs. 2,108.46 crore under the loan waiver scheme of the UPA Government, either by way of total waiver or by getting relief. Drawn in consonance with the policies of the Congress Party led by President Sonia Gandhi, the scheme had been announced by Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the Union Budget for 2008-09 to benefit the hard-pressed farmers of the country.

Disclosing this here on Friday, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that farmers who had obtained loans from commercial banks/ district cooperative banks between March 31, 1997 and March 31, 2007, and had not returned loans by February 29, 2008, would benefit from the scheme. 

 Under the lump sum payment scheme, farmers would get 25 per cent of the loan amount waived off in case they deposited 75 per cent of their defaulting amount by June 30, 2009. More than 5.06 lakh farmers of Haryana would be benefitted to the tune of Rs. 1,451.19 crore. This includes more than 4.24 lakh farmers who would get short-term benefit of Rs. 1,113.32 crore and 82,727 farmers would get benefit of Rs. 299.19 crore in the long term.

More than 1.35 lakh farmers, Hooda said, had obtained loans amounting to Rs. 558.51 crore from commercial banks. In case of Regional Rural Banks, 22,228 beneficiaries have got relief to the tune of Rs. 137.44 crore. The lists of beneficiaries have been displayed on the notice boards of various banks by June 22, 2008.

The Haryana Government too has implemented several schemes to give relief to the people. "In fact, I myself being a man of the masses, I keep feeling the pulse of the people to redress their  grievances promptly. This scheme was introduced to give relief to the hard-pressed people of Haryana by waiving off interest on their loans. Those who had returned their principle amount of loan up to December 31, 2006, were exempted from paying interest on their defaulting loans upto March 31, 2006", the Chief Minister said.

A total of 4,45,417 farmers got benefit of interest amount to the tune of Rs. 444.28 crore under this innovative scheme. This includes benefit of 177.74 crore to 2,58,388 farmers for short term loans and of Rs. 266.54 crore for long term loans to 1,87,029 farmers, Hooda added.