Yogi's crop loan waiver scheme likely to cap at about 4 mn beneficiaries

By the end of March 2018, only about 3.6 million farmers were provided benefits totalling about Rs 220 billion

The flagship crop loan waiver scheme of the Yogi Adityanath government is likely to cap at about 4 million beneficiaries, down by 2.6 million as per previous estimates.

Last year, the Adityanath government had estimated that almost 8.6 million small and marginal farmers would benefit from the scheme, which was pegged to cost the exchequer Rs 360 billion, for which the state had made provisions in the 2017-18 budget.

Later, 6.6 million small and marginal farmers were found eligible under the scheme after weeding out duplication of names in bank records. However, by the end of March 2018, only about