HP sends Rs 226 cr loan waiver proposal

SHIMLA: Around 1.3 lakh small and marginal farmers of the state stand to get benefitted by the Central agricultural loan waiver scheme with the state government forwarding their loan details amounting to Rs 226 crore, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said today.

Presiding over a review meeting of the state Cooperative Department here, Dhumal said the State Cooperative Bank, Agriculture and Rural Development Bank, Kangra Central Cooperative bank, Kangra Primary Agriculture Rural Development Bank and Jogindra Central Cooperative banks have advanced a loan of Rs 226 crore to the farmers of the state.

With the announcement of the Union government to waive off agriculture debts, about 1.30 lakh farmers of Himachal are likely to get benefitted, an official release said.

He said cooperatives are the backbone of the rural economy and the state has a vast network of 4,404 cooperative societies with a membership of 13.88 lakh today as compared to 663 cooperative societies with a membership of 18,375 in 1948.