By Sandeep Pattnaik
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Bhubaneswar, 29th Oct: As the state continues to reel under severe drought, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced a slew of packages to soothe the distressed farmers, in a high level discussions held in the Secretariat on Thursday.
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Among the measures, it has been decided that, the cooperative and commercial banks will not exert any pressure on the farmers for repayment of Khariff loans in the affected blocks, even as the last date for repayment is March,2016. Rabi loan will be advanced to the farmers without asking them to repay the Khariff loan.
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District Level Technical Committees [DLTC] will be convened soon for reviewing and revising the scale of finance for different Rabi crops as loan to the farmers. Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati has directed Principal Secretary Cooperation Manoj Ahuja to issue necessary instructions to all districts and cooperative banks. The NABRAD and SLBC have also been requested to issue necessary guidelines to Lead Banks for convening District Level Bankers Committee Meeting to extend the measures required for mitigation of drought like situation in affected areas and advance of Rabi loan to farmers. Agriculture department has also been directed to issue advisories for mixed crop and fodder cultivation as per availability of irrigation water and residual moisture which can sustain these crops in Rabi.
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Besides, rescheduling of Khariff loan in all banks will be done after receipt of the crop cutting report. This year, crop cutting assessment will be done in 3 slabs viz. area affected by more than 33% crop loss, area affected by more than 50% crop loss and the area affected by more than 66% loss. Chief Secretary Sri Pati has directed cooperation department and SRC to issue the guidelines accordingly. Representatives from NABRAD, SLBC, RBI, State Cooperative Bank along with other commercial banks took part in deliberations.
