UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Announced 1650 Crore Rupees Agri Loan waiver

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on 22 November 2012 announced an agricultural loan waiver worth 1650 crore Rupees which is supposed to benefit about half a million small and marginal farmers.

The agricultural loan waiver is applied to farmers who had taken up to 50000 rupees of loan from the UP Sahkari Gram Vikas Bank (UPSGVB) against farm land as security.
The provision is that the borrower should have repaid at least a tenth of the principal amount by March 31, to be eligible. The waiver would include both the principal due and interest on it.

In its proposal for legislative assembly poll, the Samajwadi Party led by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav promised earlier in 2012 that they are going to stop the practice of Auctioning farmer’s land to recover loan dues.

The dark point of the loan waiver scheme is that it does not cover agricultural loans by other cooperative banks and other financial institutions but the positive thing is that number of beneficiaries to the scheme is around 720000 farmers and it is also going to reduce the non-performing assets of UPSGVB and strengthen its financial position.

The government of Uttar Pradesh had already made budgetary provision of 500 crore rupees for the scheme and more allocation would be made in the coming budget.