Jharkhand Increases Loan Waivers Limit for Farmers | 08 Aug 2024

Why in News?

Recently, The Jharkhand cabinet decided to widen the farm loan waiver scheme by increasing the limit of credit from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh.

Key Points

  • Under the Jharkhand Agricultural Loan Waiver Scheme, loans worth Rs 1,900.35 crore of 4.73 lakh farmers were waived from the financial year 2020-21 to 2023-24.
  • In another initiative, the state government has decided to double the honorarium payment to traditional village heads.
    • Mankis and Parganaits will be given an honorarium of Rs 6,000 per month, Munda and Gram Pradhan will be given Rs 4,000 and other traditional Gram Pradhans will be given Rs 2,000 per month.

Jharkhand Agricultural Loan Waiver Scheme

  • It was launched by the Jharkhand state government on 1st February 2021.
  • The objective of the scheme is to relieve the farmers of the State of short-term agricultural credit from the debt burden, improve the credit worthiness of the crop loan holder, ensure credit for the new crop, prevent migration of the farming community and strengthen the agricultural economy.
  • The following are the required entitlements for the beneficiary of the loan waiver scheme:
    • The ryot farmers who do their own farming on their land.
    • Non-ryot farmers who do agricultural work on the land of other ryots.
    • The applicant should be a short-term crop loan holder and the crop loan should be issued from a qualified bank located in Jharkhand.
    • A farmer from the State of Jharkhand, who is above the age of 18 years and the farmer should have a valid Aadhaar number, Kisan Credit Card holder and a valid ration card holder.
    • Members holding the same crop loan from one family will be eligible. The applicant should have a standard crop loan account.