In the Budget speech, the finance minister announced that the entire loan amount overdue up to December 31, 2007 would be waived and there was no cutoff date regarding the issue of the loan.
However, the corresponding scheme floated by the finance ministry stated that the waiver would be applicable only for those farmers who had taken loans from the bank after 31 March, 1997.
"This subsequent correction has reduced the claims for loan waiver relief to a significant extent in case of RRBs and cooperative societies in the eastern region. In certain branches of RRBs in West Bengal, the demand for loan waiver has reduced to 1/10th of the total demand since the inception of the scheme," said Dilip K Mukherjee, general secretary, All India Regional Rural Bank of Employees Association.
According to him, since RRBs have the largest number of branches in the rural areas, a majority of its advances accounted for agricultural loans for government-sponsored schemes