Section 1 in Executive Instructions Issued by the Board of Revenue, Orissa under the Orissa Fertilisers Loans Rules, 1965
1. Introduction.
(1)While cash loans have in the past been advanced under the Agriculturists' Loans, Act, 1884, it has been felt that loans in shape of chemical fertilizers will also assist cultivators in their effort to increase the yield from their lands. With the availability of chemical fertilizers on credit the cultivator is likely to take increasingly to the application of such fertilizers.(2)The normal rule of not advancing a loan to a defaulter will operate here too, and the default need not necessarily be under these rules, A defaulter in respect of cash loans, whether under the Agriculturists' Loans Act, 1884, or under the Land Improvement Loans Act, 1883, should normally be disqualified from obtaining a fertilizer loan and his applications summarily rejected unless, for overwhelming reasons, the sanctioning officer decides to waive the restriction. This discretion, naturally, can be used when the default is recent and has been due to some genuine difficulty; even in such cases, the loan ought not to be sanctioned unless additional securities of immovable property of a value not less than twice the amount of the loan proposed to be sanctioned are furnished.(3)The loan ought not to be sanctioned in areas where and during periods when utilisation of chemical fertilizers appears unlikely. It is not an expedient policy to increase the indebtedness of the cultivator without simultaneously ensuring that the debt would, within a reasonable period not only improve his capacity for repayment but would also earn him profits he did not get earlier. Authorities competent to sanction these loans should carefully enquire into whether the fertilizers can be used properly within a reasonable period of the sanction and this should invariably be reported by the Enquiring Officer against item 3 (c) in the reverse of the application form. There should also be no effort at competing with other programmes for the supply of fertilizers as such competitions would in the end make the credit insecure.(4)The scheme being related to the agricultural programme of the area, it is necessary that there is complete co-ordination among sanctioning authority, the co-operative societies and personnel of the Community Development, Co-operation and Agriculture Departments. The Collector and the Sub-divisional Officer will be responsible to ensure co-ordination. The assistance of cooperative societies and personnel of the other departments would generally relate to-(a)selection of areas where sanction of fertilizer loans would be useful;(b)assisting the cultivator in filling up the application form, particularly against items 2 and 3 of this form;(c)collection of applications and arrangements in consultation with the sanctioning authorities for sanction of loans and execution of agreements/bonds on specific dates for whole villages; and(d)adequate supply of fertilizers to co-operative societies and arrangements for expeditious delivery to loanees, despatch of the triplicate copies of the permits to respective Tahasildars along with demand lists and maintenance of proper account by the societies.The last function may in fact involve extending to the cooperative societies material assistance of different types, arrangement of transport, assistance in accounting, etc., and such assistance should ungrudgingly be extended to the extent possible at least till the cooperative societies are capable of attending to the tasks themselves.(5)The executive instructions supplement the rules and it is necessary that the rules are referred to for ascertaining the procedure. The executive instructions do not provide for matters which are self-explanatory in the rules.
