Even as he manually sorts the list of farmers from three khathas (ledgers), five or six farmers walk in every day, curious to find out how much of their loans will be waived.
An average day in Swamy's life involves routine work of disbursements, recoveries and keeping accounts, Swamy is still able to find enough time to serve as secretary for two credit societies. But these days, he is barely able to go home even for a quick lunch.
The credit societies, attached to the district central cooperative bank (DCCB) branch at Jath, a drought-prone tehsil 100 km east of the district town of Sangli in southern Maharashtra, are busy segregating the farmer's loans. They will finalise the list of eligible farmers in the next seven days and display them at the society offices.
"Many societies have large number of borrowers (500-1,000). Besides, a society is manned by one or two people, and one secretary often manages two to three societies. Every farmer has availed of four or five different loans that have to be classified under different criteria," said S N Pokle, district development manager, NABARD.
Take Sharnapa Bhimanna Pujari, a farmer with 6.2 acres, who has an outstanding loan of Rs 6.93 lakh (including interest) with the local credit society. This includes a home loan of Rs 263,874 a crop loan of Rs 17,597 a medium-term farm investment loan of Rs 126,730, a drip irrigation loan of Rs 25,000, and a term loan of Rs 31,500 used to buy water during drought year. He will be classified as "other farmer" while his house loan will not be eligible for a waiver. "His eligible loans and interest add up to Rs 253,701 on which he will get a 25 per cent debt relief amounting to Rs 63,426, provided he pays a third of the remaining loan (Rs 190,275) by September 30, 2008, and undertakes to pay the rest in two installment by March 30, 2009, and June 30, 2009,'' said Swamy.
Once the credit societies and branches of the district central cooperative banks prepare their list, the same will be checked by a tehsil senior inspector (TSI), who is the DCCB's point man at the tehsil level. Banks across the spectrum have swung into action after the Centre announced detailed guidelines on May 23. Soon after the detailed guidelines were issued on May 23, the state cooperative bank (SCB) convened a meeting in Pune on May 27 to brief DCCB officials from across the state. On June 5, the DCCB in Sangli held a meeting where it briefed 10 TSIs. They got copies of translated versions of the guidelines and formats in which information has to be collected from societies.
Nearly 110 km away from Jath, in village Kasabe Digraj, Union Bank of India's (UBI) branch manager R N Thakur prepared a list of eligible farmers on an excel sheet. A team of officers, from UBI's urban branches, are helping Thakur to input the data on a software package that promises to speed up the process.
The bank has already strengthened its audit team with additional manpower who will move around branches in the country and validate the list of farmers. They will carry out the first-level of checks. After they return, 120 senior executives will be dispatched next week to rural branches to carry out a second level of checks.
Senior officers from UBI's regional office in Kolhapur and headquarter in Mumbai were in Sangli to monitor the work and provide clarifications, if needed. "The banks are going about their job with a lot of detail, zest and urgency ensuring that no eligible farmer is left out of the scheme,'' said a senior banker in Sangli.
"Farmers are under heavy debt burden. The objective of the scheme is to give them a reprieve and make them eligible for fresh loans so that the country could ensure food security and stable food prices,'' said Lakshman Rao, general manager (priority sector lending), Union Bank of India.
Back in Sangli, District Magistrate Rajendra S Chavan has already held two rounds of meetings with bankers, monitoring their progress. "The scheme is very important and we have to ensure the banks implement it on time," said Chavan.
Chavan meets representatives of the banks every Monday, who brief him on the progress. A couple of banks with one or two branches in the district have already submitted him the list of eligible farmers with the eligible amount.
Banks also have to submit an updated list, every Saturday to the District Deputy Registrar of cooperatives, who forwards the data to state's principal secretary, cooperatives, in Mumbai. Banks don't mind it, even if it requires more work.
"Banks are keen on implementing the scheme as their recovery otherwise is less than 50 per cent. The state is keen as the scheme is being funded by someone else,'' sums up a political observer in the district.
