By our Special Correspondent

Panaji (Goa) State government has further extended its ambitious ‘Debt Relief- One Time Settlement’ (OTS) scheme for the mining affected borrowers for a period of six month till September 30.

The move is basically aimed at providing some immediate relief to the mining dependents, whose livelihood is affected with closer of mining industry.

The dependents have been demanding that government should take over their loan liability or freeze it till the mining activities resumes.

Cabinet Advisory Committee (CAC) member and TCP Minister Vijay Sardessai said that the decision to extend the OTS scheme was taken during the visit of Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari. “Accordingly, the notification was issued to extend the scheme by six month,” he said.

As per the Debt Relief scheme, which was introduced in August 2014, a subsidy upto 35 percent on the total loan settlement amount is provided. The banks and financial institutions are granting waiver of 100 percent loan interest from September 2012 and 40 percent waiver on principle loan amount for trucks owners while 30 percent to barge owners.