Published On : Tue, Feb 25th, 2020

CM Uddhav Thackeray Announces First List of Crop Loan Waiver, Over 15,000 Farmers Benefited

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Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Monday released the first list of 15,358 beneficiaries under the state farm loan waiver scheme. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his deputy Ajit Pawar interacted with some farmers via video conferencing whose bank accounts were credited with funds.

“Under the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule farm loan waiver scheme, 34,83,908 farmer accounts have been identified,” said a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

Thackeray said implementation of the scheme has been done within 60 days of its announcement and credited the state machinery for the speedy execution.

The scheme writing off the loans of farmers whose crop loan outstanding is up to Rs two lakh up to September 30, 2019, was announced by the chief minister in December last year, after taking charge of the coalition government.

During the video conferencing interaction from the Vidhan Bhawan, farmer Vithalrao Garud from Parbhani told the CM that his debts have been cleared. He also invited Thackeray for the wedding of his daughter.

Popat Mukte, a farmer from Ahmednagar district, expressed satisfaction over the simple procedure to claim the loan waiver, which he said saved him the ordeal of doing rounds of government offices.

Mukte said the new crop loan waiver scheme stood out from the earlier one launched by the then BJP government in the ease of the procedure.

“Earlier, money was received after doing several rounds of government offices. Now, the work is swift,” he said.

Earlier in the day as the budget session was about to begin, Bharatiya Janata Paty legislators staged a protest on the steps of the Vidhan Bhawan building demanding complete loan waiver for farmers.

They demanded that the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government write off farmers’ debts completely and also provide them financial assistance of Rs 25,000 per hectare for crop damage.