Jharkhand Government Waives Farm Loans

• 27 Sep 2024

Why in News?

Recently, the Jharkhand government has announced the waiver of agricultural loans worth Rs. 400.66 crore.

• This decision, which benefits 1,76,977 farmers, was implemented through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) on September 26, 2024.

Key Points

• Addressing Farmers’ Challenges:
  • The loan waiver aims to alleviate these burdens by canceling debts up to Rs. 2 lakh per farmer.
  • The waiver is a response to the significant difficulties experienced by farmers in Jharkhand, where 80% of the population relies on agriculture for their livelihood.
• Promoting Self-Reliance and Alternative Farming:
  • Government urged farmers to adopt alternative farming techniques alongside traditional methods to cope with the changing climate.
  • The government of Jharkhand stressed the importance of self-reliance for the state’s development, despite Jharkhand’s rich mineral and forest resources.

Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme

• Aim: It has been visioned as an aid for simpler/faster flow of information and funds to the beneficiaries and to reduce the fraud in the delivery system.
• Implementation: It is a mission or an initiative by the government of India started on 1^st January 2013 as a way to reform the government delivery system.
  • Central Plan Scheme Monitoring System (CPSMS), the earlier version of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS), of the Office of Controller General of Accounts, was chosen to act as the common platform for routing of the Direct Benefit Transfer.
• Components of DBT: Primary components in the implementation of DBT schemes include Beneficiary Account Validation System, a robust payment and reconciliation platform integrated with Reserve Bank of India (RBI), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Public & Private Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks (core banking solutions of banks, settlement systems of RBI, Aadhaar Payment Bridge of NPCI) etc.