Gandhinagar, On farmers and agriculture leaders' demands, the Central government has extended the deadline for repayment of short-term crop loans till May 31, said Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Wednesday.

Informing the media, the Deputy Chief Minister said, "Many farmers across the state, farmers' leaders, the Kisan Sangh and the MLAs had proposed to the Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to extend the deadline for the repayment of short-term crop loans to the farmers. We forwarded this proposal to the Centre, which has accepted the proposal. The deadline for repayment of these loans will be May 31 instead of March 31st."

Around 24,21,149 farmers will be benefited by this decision. During these two months, the interest on the loans will be borne by the Central as well as State government. An extra Rs 160 crore will be burdened on the Gujarat government," said Patel.