Expressing anguish over the spurt in the number of farmers’ suicides in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said the adamant bankers were trying to show the government in bad light despite it extending Debt Redemption Scheme and making capital infusion for the welfare of farmers in the State.
Addressing the 191st meeting of the SLBC of Andhra Pradesh held at Vijayawada, Chandrababu said Andhra Pradesh cannot have farmer suicides.
“We need to be sensitive to their problems. Lack of viability of commercial crops, defunct pump sets are some of the main reasons. We need to bring down debts and for this, we need cooperation of bankers. Every farmer should be able to carry out agriculture without debts,” he added.
“Crop insurance has become a major problem in the State. Despite farmers paying premiums, they are not able to insure their crops. Hence, we need to prepare a vulnerability index and sort out issues district-wise,” the Chief Minister explained.
The Chief Minister also expressed his dissatisfaction with bankers lagging in technological advancement.
He sought information on how many banks do not have Core Banking Solutions and why they have not been able to digitise their data completely.
At this juncture, the Chief Minister directed all banks to make Intra-operability facility available in the state within 3 months, before the next SLBC meeting. Bankers are also instructed to link all welfare schemes to RuPay card.
“The state government’s departments data will be online. Taking help of this data, you can roll out money for welfare schemes,” he said.
