Deputy Commissioner S.B. Bommanahalli said in Belagavi on Wednesday that the State government will extend all assistance to farmers who had received arrest warrants from Axis Bank and they need not worry.
Discussing the matter with Axis Bank officials, following farmers recent protest against arrest warrants issued by the Bank for loan recovery despite the Karnataka Government announcing waiver of loan taken by farmers from Commercial Banks and Cooperative institutions.
We will initiate loan waiver proceedings for all those who are eligible. Around 25 per cent of the 180 farmers who have outstanding loans are eligible for it. The others will be assisted through the one-time settlement scheme that will be arranged at the taluk levels, said DC.
Axis Bank on Wednesday told the State Government that it is not going to withdraw the cheque bounce cases filed against farmers in a Kolkata court, but will take steps to transfer the cases to Karnataka.
The banks has filed 744 cases against farmers across Karnataka, which include 180 cases in Belagavi district. Just about two dozen cases of them qualify to get relief under the crop loan waiver scheme announced by the JD(S)-Congress regime. Other loans were borrowed for purposes like buying of farm equipment including tractors and other machinery.
The issue had hit the headlines after Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had convened a meeting in Bengaluru and warned bank officials not to proceed further with the cases.