BENGALURU: Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy ’s ambitious crop loan waiver programme , which was rolled out in the first week of December, may not be completed before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, thanks to a government order (GO) issued in September.The GO says a farmer with an outstanding cooperative society/bank loan is not eligible for commercial bank loan waiver. For this to be implemented, the government must first identify farmers who have borrowed from cooperative banks.However, it turns out that most farmers — although they have borrowed from both cooperative institutions and commercial banks — want waiver of their commercial bank loans. As a result, they are reluctant to apply for the waiver of loans from cooperative institutions.“The amount availed from cooperative banks is less compared to what was availed through commercial banks. Farmers prefer their commercial bank loans to be waived off. Hence, they are not coming forward,” admitted a senior official at a cooperative bank in Doddaballapur.The state government rolled out the loan-waiver programme in Doddaballapur and Sedam (Kalaburgi) taluks on a pilot basis. The issue is particularly evident in Kalaburgi where at least 30% of eligible farmers stayed away from sharing details of their cooperative sector loans.“It is not possible to identify all cooperative sector debtors unless they come forward and submit documents. The government may have to pass a new order allowing commercial bank loan-waiver in districts where cooperative sector debtors have submitted documents and have repaid loans,” a senior official said.For the government, however, clearing cooperative loans is the immediate priority as against clearing commercial bank loans. This is because the latter adds a financial burden of another Rs 5,000 crore.MK Aiyappa, registrar of co-operative societies in Karnataka, said, “We are aware that farmers are reluctant to apply for cooperative loan waiver. It is for the state government to take a call.”As on December 11, the government paid off 13,735 crop loans (worth `72 crore) in cooperative banks and primary agricultural credit societies across the state.Munish Moudgil, commissioner of survey, settlement and land records, who is managing the technology for the scheme, said the government aims at paying off the loans of cooperative sector (the first installment) by the end of January.“Document collection for commercial banks’ loans, too, is under progress. We hope to pay the commercial loanees by the end of February,” he said.