As many as 10,187 farmers have died due to Covid-19 and they have left behind outstanding loans of Rs 79.47 crore in cooperative banks, the government said Wednesday.
Cooperation Minister ST Somashekhar said the chief minister will take a call on waiving these loans in 3-4 days.
“In a couple of days, the Apex Bank board of governors will meet and take a decision on the loan waiver. Our CM and government are committed to help farmers during the Covid-19 distress. We will also ensure that farmers get credit,” Somashekhar said.
If the loan waiver comes through, the highest number of beneficiaries will be in Belagavi where 3,334 farmers who succumbed to Covid-19 had Rs 23.84 crore outstanding loans, followed by Bidar (824 farmers) and Vijayapura (754 farmers).
These are loans borrowed from the Karnataka State Cooperative Apex Bank, the District Cooperative Central banks and the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies.
In the previous 2020-21 fiscal, the government’s credit target was for 24.50 lakh farmers to get short-term and medium-term crop loans worth Rs 15,300 crore. “Exceeding this garget, we covered 25.67 lakh farmers with Rs 17,108 crore of loan. Of them, 10,187 farmers died due to Covid-19 and the CM is considering writing off their loans worth Rs 79.47 crore,” Somashekhar said.