New Delhi Mar 28 PTI The government has not given any farm loan waiver to farmers in the last five years and this year so far Parliament was informed on Monday The government has initiated various steps to ease the debt burden of farmers in the country Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha No farm loan waiver scheme has been implemented by the Government of India during the last 5 years and the current year Karad said He was responding to a question asked by All India United Democratic Front AIUDFs Badruddin Ajmal about the amount allocated and spent by the government to waive loans of farmers during the last five years and the current year in the lower house of Parliament The minister said the government has taken several steps to reduce the debt burden of farmers including direct support of Rs 6000 per year under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi PM-KISAN and facility of reduced interest rate on agriculture credit Farmers get agriculture credit at a reduced interest rate of 7 per cent Government implements an interest subvention scheme for short term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh Under the scheme interest subvention of 2 per cent per annum is provided to banks on use of their own resources Besides additional 3 per cent incentive is given to the farmers for prompt repayment of the loan thereby reducing the effective rate of interest of 4 per cent Karad said Apart from these the RBI has issued directions for relief measures to be provided by lenders in areas affected by natural calamities including restructuringrescheduling of existing crop and term loans extending fresh loans relaxed security margin norms moratorium etc he added Loan to distressed farmers indebted to non-institutional lenders is an eligible category of farm credit under the priority sector lending as per directions issued by the RBI Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana PMFBY provides a comprehensive insurance cover against failure of insured crops due to non-preventable natural risks thus providing financial support to farmers suffering crop lossdamage arising out of unforeseen events stabilising the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming and modern agricultural practices Karad said further PTI KPM MR

Mumbai Mar 23 PTI The Reserve Bank has assigned the lead bank responsibility to Punjab National Bank PNB for the newly-created district of Meghalaya The Meghalaya government in a notification on November 9 2021 had informed about formation of a new district Eastern West Khasi Hills It has been decided to assign the lead bank responsibility of the new district to Punjab National Bank Reserve Bank of India RBI said in a notification on Wednesday The newly-created district has been carved out from the erstwhile West Khasi Hills district it said The allotted district working code for Eastern West Khasi Hills is 00U There is no change in the lead bank responsibilities of the erstwhile district and of other districts in the State of Meghalaya the notification said A lead bank has the responsibility of coordinating efforts of all credit institutions in the allotted district to increase flow of credit to agriculture small scale industries and other economic activities included in the priority sector in rural and semi-urban areas A bank having a relatively large network of branches in rural areas of a district with adequate financial and manpower resources is generally given the lead bank responsibility for that district PTI KPM MR RAM