Karnataka Govt. to waive farmer loans upto Rs. 50,000

New Delhi [India], June 21 (ANI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday announced to waive off short term loan of farmers till Rs 50,000 availed till June 20, 2017 from cooperative banks. With this, loans worth Rs 8165 crores will be waived, which will benefit around 22,27,506 farmers across state. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In these critical times, our govt will waive farmer loans upto Rs. 50000, availed till 20/06/2017 from cooperative banks. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EmpoweringKtaka?src=hash">#EmpoweringKtaka</a></p>&mdash; CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) <a href="https://twitter.com/CMofKarnataka/status/877448592130097152">June 21, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Following the announcement which brings major relief to farmers, Siddaramaiah to consider the acute drought and waive farmer loans from commercial banks. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">On behalf of our farmers, I request <a href="https://twitter.com/PMOIndia">@PMOIndia</a> to consider the acute drought & waive farmer loans from commercial banks. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EmpoweringKtaka?src=hash">#EmpoweringKtaka</a></p>&mdash; CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) <a href="https://twitter.com/CMofKarnataka/status/877448970737336320">June 21, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Further stating that the state government is strongly 'pro-farmer', the Chief Minister stated that Karnataka is the first state in country to transfer input subsidies directly to bank accounts of farmers. Earlier on June 19, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh announced total waiver of entire crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh for small and marginal farmers up to 5 acres, and a flat Rs 2 lakh relief for all other marginal farmers, irrespective of their loan amount. Making the announcements during his speech in the Vidhan Sabha, the Chief Minister said the move would benefit a total of 10.25 lakh farmers, including 8.75 lakh farmers up to 5 acres. The initiative would provide double the relief announced by the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, he pointed out. The state government also decided to raise the ex-gratia for suicide affected families to Rs. 5 lakh from Rs.3 lakh. On June 11, Maharashtra Government announced complete loan waiver to farmers. The government has decided to form a committee to set the criteria to waive off loans. However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier in June had said the Centre would not fund for loan waivers for farmers, adding that the states must fund for this on their own expense. (ANI)