Farmers Movement Archive

Interest-free loans given to 25,000 farmers

Dehradun: In an event in Dehradun, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat inaugurated a state government initiate — Deen Dayal Upadhyay Sahkarita Kisan Kajyan Yojana — under which interest free loans of up to Rs 3 lakh were provided to 25,000 farmers from 95 blocks of the state on Saturday. While the main event was held at Bannu School in the Race Course area of Dehradun, 100 other centres — in different parts of the state — were virtually linked with the programme. Farmers were given cheques of the loan amount at these 101 centres or the money was directly transferred into their accounts. Addressing the event, CM Rawat started off with the topic of farm laws. “Let me be very clear that the three farm laws are in favour of the farmers. Be it in the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha or any other platform, no one has been able to highlight a single point that is against the farmers. Now, it has become very clear that 302 Twitter handles being operated from Pakistan have been spreading false news related to the farmers' movement and rally,” he said. The CM added that some people sitting in “foreign nations” are trying to create a divide among the people of the country. He further added, “If the farmers get a better price, the farm law gives them the freedom to sell their produce at any location. How can this be against the farmers? Some people are misleading the farmers for their vested interests. I would like to request the farmers to not be misled by such people and individuals.” CM Rawat said that soon after coming to power, the BJP government started the project to give Rs 1 lakh at 2% interest to the farmers. “I had promised the farmers that if the government got good results, it would increase the loan amount. Last year, over 60% of the loan amount taken by farmers was returned to the banks. This is an encouraging sign and fulfilling our commitment we have decided to give an interest-free loan of up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers for works related to agriculture and allied sectors, and up to Rs 5 lakh to self-help groups,” said CM Rawat. Besides, the government also distributed hardware for computerisation work in 200 multi-purpose agricultural credit cooperative societies of the state. A total amount of Rs 40 crore has to be spent for computerisation of multipurpose agricultural credit cooperatives. Out of this, 25% of the money will be provided by the state government. All the cooperative societies of the state will be computerised by March 2021 and Uttarakhand will be the first state in the country where all multipurpose agricultural credit cooperatives of the state will be computerised.

The Times of India

2021-02-07

Dehradun