Bankers in Karnataka at the State Level Bankers’ Meet (SLBM) have agreed to reschedule the loans amounting to Rs 1,357 crore including principal and interest of grape and pomegranate growers, who have been hit by natural calamity over the past few years. The grape and pomegranate farmers, mainly from the northern districts of the state, have suffered crop losses due to floods and diseases such as bacterial blight. The banks have also agreed to extend fresh line of credit irrespective of closure of the previous loan account to farmers.
The bankers agreed after the intervention of the state chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee and minister for law T B Jayachandra at the 128th quarterly meeting of SLBC. The banks, so far, have been denying fresh loans to the grape and pomegranate growers for non-payment of earlier loans.
The banks in Karnataka have disbursed Rs 21,663 crore during the first quarter of the fiscal against the annual target of Rs 89,821 crore. Disbursals for the agriculture sector stood at Rs 14,277 crore against the annual target of Rs 57,247 crore.