Hyderabad:
Bankers in Andhra Pradesh will burn the midnight oil over the next one week. By the end of this month, they're meant to hand out Rs 7000 crores in loans to farmers.
Tough, given that sowing is delayed, because of scanty rainfall. The government had set aside Rs 14,000 crores for kharif crop loans, half of which has been utilized. So far, 25 farmers have committed suicide because of the drought. The government worries that if it now declares a drought, farmer morale will dip, and the money won't be utilized by those its meant for.
Chief Minister Y S R Rajasekhara Reddy says: "If we had declared a drought ...lending from banks would have substantially come down.''
Recent rain has led to some home among farmers, who've begun heading to banks. "From 2nd August to 15th, the lending improved from 16 per cent to 50 per cent. That is the period when rains came. Now that Andhra is getting rainfall, we should be able to meet the target by the end of the month," says R S Reddy, Chief Managing Director, Andhra Bank.
In the next ten days, the Met department has predicted rainfall in almost all parts of Andhra Pradesh. The government hopes that also means it will rain loans all over the state.