In a move that will make farmers cheer up, the Punjab govt has announced the OTS as demanded by farmers. The loans outstanding against dairy farmers in Punjab have become a big problem as farmers are not able to repay them.
The dairy farmers had urged the state govt to offer them a respite from this obligation through ” one time settlement scheme (OTS).
The scheme will cover all dairy loans that had become bad loans [NPA]. All the court cases filed against farmers where decrees had been obtained would be closed. The central cooperative banks had advanced most of the loans.
However, the scheme would not cover cases of fraud and willful defaulters, he said. Divulging the details of concession under settlement formula, the spokesperson said where the amount of loan advanced was more than Rs 50,000, simple rate of interest at a rate of 10 per cent per annum would be charged from the date of asset becoming NPA in the books of the bank.
