Question : DEBT WAIVER SCHEME

(a) the number of farmers whose loans have been waived off under the Agricultural Debt Waiver Scheme during each of the last years and the current years, State/UT wise and Bank-wise;

(b) whether the Government has received complaints of non-implementation of the said Scheme in some States;

(c) if so, the details thereof, State-wise and the reasons therefor alonwith the action taken on such complaints;

(d) whether the farmers who are repaying their loan timely have shown their displeasure against the said scheme; and

(e) if so, the details thereof alongiwth the remedial measures taken/being taken by the Government in this regard?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI NAMO NARAIN MEENA)

(a) to (e): The Government of India implemented Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008 which aimed at de-clogging the lines of credit that were clogged due to the debt burden on the farmers and to entitle these farmers for fresh credit. All agricultural loans disbursed by Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Cooperative Banks, Local Area Banks and Regional Rural Banks between 01 April 1997 to 31 March 2007 to farmers, overdue as on 31 December 2007 and remaining unpaid upto 28 February 2008 were eligible for Debt Waiver/Debt Relief. The Debt Waiver portion of the Scheme was closed on 30.06.2008. The Debt Relief portion of the Scheme was closed on 30.06.2010.

The bank wise details of implementation of the scheme in respect of Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks and Local Area Banks are given in Annex-I. The State wise details in respect of Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks are given in Annex-II.

The Government of India (GoI) has so far released an amount of Rs. 52419.88 crore to the lending institutions as reimbursement under the Scheme.

The Government of India had made the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the nodal agency for the implementation of the Scheme by the Public Sector Banks and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the nodal agency for the implementation of the Scheme by Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks. As per the guidelines for the Scheme, there was a decentralized grievance redressal mechanism for dealing with complaints right down to the branch level of the banks.