Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has said that the state was given low priority in the agricultural loan waiver scheme announced by the Centre.
The Minister said that of the Rs 70,000 crore loan waiver scheme for the farmers announced by the Centre, only Rs 2,464.35 crore was granted to Bihar, which amounts to only about 3.5 per cent of the total.
As compared to Bihar, the farmers in the south and west would reap the benefit of the loan waiver scheme between Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore respectively.
The low share of Bihar farmers was mainly due to the condition laid down by the Centre that the scheme would not apply to any loan disbursed by a lending institution prior to March 31,1997.
"This restriction is going to exclude a large number of farmers from the purview of the scheme," he said.
As per the state government's estimates, about 8.09 lakh loanee farmers of the Central Cooperative Banks and 1.35 lakh of the Bihar State Land Development Bank would not be able to get the actual benefit of the loan waiver scheme, Modi said.
The total amount involved would be around Rs 895 crore.