Loan relief in AP comes in five instalments HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh state cabinet has decided to implement crop loan waiver in five instalments and set up a 'farmers empowerment corporation' to implement farm loan waiver and empower the farming community through various schemes.
Briefing mediapersons here, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said as promised they will be implementing loan waiver for the farmers in a phased manner. 'We have to do a lot of exercise and I am happy that we have finally found a way out to implement the same,' he said.
The farmers empowerment corporation, a non-profit entity, will be created under Section 8 of the Companies Act and will be funded through various sources in the form of grants, subsidies, levies, cess, bonds, monetary value certificates, debentures, etc.
In all likelihood, the corporation will be inaugurated on October 22.
In the first phase, 20 percent of the assured loan waiver amount of Rs 1.5 lakh per farmer's family will be cleared and the balance will be cleared in the next four years in four equal instalments. The government will pay a 10 percent interest on the balance amount.
Naidu said apart from implementing loan waiver scheme, the corporation will also take measures for capacity building of farmers to enhance their economic status. Funds are being mobilised from various sources. ''What we are proposing is win-win situation for all,'' he said.
On other decisions, Naidu said that for strengthening DWCRA, which he had created, he would form a Rs 7,600-crore corpus fund, that is Rs 10,000 per member of the 7 lakh groups.
Under NTR Bharsoa scheme, the social pensions, enhanced from Rs 200 to Rs 1,000, will be paid to beneficiaries. He assured that everything would be transparent and every scheme and records would be linked to Aadhaar. 'It is one way of cash transfer I had promised earlier,' he said.
For government employees a dearness allowance of Rs 5.992 per cent was announced and the government will reimburse the fee of Andhra students studying in Telangana state.
It was decided to form three task forces for IT development in the state _ e-Governance, electronics and IT, Innovation and capacity building. The aim is to make Andhra Pradesh a knowledge state.
News Posted: 2 October, 2014
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