Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced that the size of farm debt loan waiver and one time settlement scheme has increased to Rs 71,860 crore from earlier announced Rs 60,416 crore.

The Union Cabinet which met on Thursday also approved guidelines for execution of the plan.

“It has taken me two months to draft the scheme and with the cabinet approving the guidelines today the scheme has taken off as off this moment,” Mr. Chidambaram said.

Besides raising the total cash outgo, there are some other changes that have been made to the plan.

The main features include categorizing agriculturists cultivating up to one hectares land as marginal farmers, those cultivating between 1 - 2 hectares as small framers and those cultivating more than 2 hectares of land will be classed as other farmers.

Full debt waiver of the eligible amount will be offered to small and marginal farmers, benefiting around 36.9 million small and marginal farmer accounts.

For the farmers, the scheme is extremely simple. All they need to do is to visit the local branch and check out their names on a list that will be mandatorily put up on notice board.

The farmer has to submit no documentation what so ever, neither does he have to pay any charges.