Half of Bengal farmers may not be eligible for loan waiver
THERE'S a twist to the jumbo debt waiver saga, in so far as West Bengal farmers go. Even as bankers are close to drawing up the final list of eligible farmers, it has become apparent that nearly half of the farm loan defaulters in West Bengal are likely to find themselves excluded from the debt-waiver scheme as loans taken prior to March 1997 are not being considered under the package. The situation is unique in West Bengal as a majority of defaulted farm loans transpired before March 31, 1997, and these loans were never been restructured unlike in other states.