Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Farmers of Maharastra went on a warpath and demanded for a Farm Loan Waiver Scheme, to which Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a 34 crore farm loan waiver scheme, named after Shivaji Maharaj, which he said will benefit approximately 89 lakh farmers and will make 40 lakh agriculturists debt free. As per Government Resolution, the loan waiver is up to 1.5 lakhs to the farmers in a blanket manner and the farmers who have dues over 1.5 lakhs have to pay the additional dues.

Reportedly there are 41 lakh farmers with total of 36474 crore of bank debts and out of these there are 7.15 lakh (17%) cultivators who have an outstanding of more than 1.5 lakh. Rest have less than 1.5 lakh to repay. These 17% cultivators occupy the total of 47% of the total amount of loan. Most of the loans are from District Central Co-operative (DCC) banks which are run by politicians and most of the waived off loans would go to the people who are linked with them. A reports says that loans of more than 5 lakh were given without a piece of paper which simply implies that the waiver scheme is being misused. This brings in the fear that the rich farmers will take up all the benefits of the waiver scheme.

By Mahak