Centre urged to provide debt swapping loans to eligible farmers
The Hindu
On an average, each farmer in TS is ridden with ₹1.52 lakh loan: survey
The State Commission for Debt Relief has urged the Centre to provide debt swapping loans to all needy farmers in the State as per the master directions of the Reserve Bank of India enabling them to clear their private loans. The government should take steps to provide increased amount of crop loans to all farmers to reduce their dependency on private money lenders. Steps should be taken to consider farming activity on par with MSME as it is providing employment to more than 50% of the population and provide loans up to ₹4 lakh without insisting on security. Commission chairman Nagurla Venkateshwarlu addressed separate letters to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman urging the Centre to fulfil the promise of doubling farmers income by 2022. He was responding to National Statistics 77th Report which stated that most of the farming community was forced to depend on the mercy of private lenders who were charging exorbitant interest due to non-availability of loans.Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.