Bhubaneswar, Nov 8: Chief Minister of eastern Indian Odisha state Naveen Patnaik on Saturday directed banks to defer recovery of crop loans in state in the wake of drought situation and provide adequate loans to farmers for the Rabi season.
He asked banks not to recover loans from the farmers till March next year.
Patnaik’s direction came during a review meeting with bankers over the drought situation in the state.
He said after the meeting that the government will provide fresh finance to the tune of Rs.4,500 crore to drought-hit farmers for Rabi cultivation.
Patnaik rued the fact that the banks have failed to achieve their loan disbursement targets with regard to the agriculture sector in the state and urged them them to extend fresh loans to the farmers for Rabi season.
Notably, 139 blocks, as per estimates, have faced 33 percent crop loss while 41 blocks faced more than 66 percent crop loss due to scanty rainfall this year.
The state government has already announced a package of about Rs.1,000 crore for drought-hit farmers who have sustained crop loss of 33 percent or more.
Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Secretary GC Pati on Saturday directed district collectors and RDCs to hold awareness and counseling camps in the drought-hit panchayats and villages of the State.
In a letter, the Chief Secretary asked the collectors to form teams comprising field officers of Revenue, Agriculture, Cooperation and Water Resources departments.
The team along with tehsildar and BDO will visit 10 camps in the drought-hit areas every day and submit a report to the Collector, the letter added.
Besides, the team will apprise farmers about the government’s packages and other benefits. They will keep a tab on local money lenders and report about cases of torture due to non-repayment of loans to the police, the letter added.
The Chief Secretary also directed the officials to take steps to set up agri clubs in the drought-affected areas to maintain coordination between farmers and administration.
Pati also asked the collectors to give report about farmer suicide within 24 hours of the death to Home and Agriculture departments.
