Chennai: Tamil Nadu farmers have something to cheer about, after few years of bad news, crop failures and drought – of loan waivers ordered by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. Taking cognizance of the farmers’ agitation in Delhi, the Madras High Court ordered the government to waive of all agricultural loans.

This order will benefit close to 20 lakh farmers.

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, comprising of Justice S Nagamuthu and M V Muralidharan directed the government to waive of farm loans taken by all farmers from cooperative societies. It also asked the government to stop recovery proceedings against defaulters.

Previously, the TN government had waived loans taken by smaller farmers owning less than 5 acres of land. But on Tuesday, the court ruled that the classification of the government was illogical and it should extend the benefit of loan waiver to all farmers. The earlier government decision benefitted 16.94 lakh small farmers who collectively owed Rs 5.780 crore. The Tuesday decision will help 3.01 lakh farmers who owe a sum of Rs 1,980 crore to the cooperative banks.

The high court has directed the government to waive of loans taken from primary agricultural cooperative banks till March 31 last year.

The court also took the state’s poor fiscal health and urged the central government to pitch in to finance the loan waiver.

“In this difficult situation, the central government cannot be a silent spectator. It should come forward to extend the help to the state government to share the burden. We are hopeful that the government of India will share the burden with the state government and extend maximum financial help to the state government to tide over the situation,” the court said.

Farmers in Tanjavur welcomed the court decision and hoped that the government would not go in appeal against the order in a superior court and implemented the order at the earliest.

The farmers are also demanding waiver of loans taken from the nationalized banks too, which is still pending.

The farmers sitting on dharna in Delhi are firm that they want waiver of all loans, even those taken from nationalized banks. “We will not leave Delhi without achieving our objective,” said Ayakannu, the farmers leader. One lakh acres of land is not being cultivated because of severe drought and the government must come to the farmers’ help, the farmers’ leader said.

A petition seeking loan waiver was filed by farmers’ association, which has sought complete loan waiver from all the banks as agriculture in the state had suffered for the last few years and the state is under unprecedented drought.