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CM announces farm loan waiver, ₹10 meal for poor
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced farm loan waiver and Shiv Bhojan, a scheme to provide a meal for ₹10 to the poor, on Saturday, the last day of the winter
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced farm loan waiver and Shiv Bhojan, a scheme to provide a meal for ₹10 to the poor, on Saturday, the last day of the winter session of the Maharashtra Assembly.
“The government will waive crop loans outstanding till September 30, 2019. The upper ceiling for the amount is ₹2 lakh. The scheme will be called Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Loan Waiver Scheme,” Thackeray said, adding it will be implemented from March 2020.
The government has not specified the number of farmers who will benefit from the move and the burden it will put on the state exchequer.
The CM also promised that the coalition government of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress will offer a scheme for farmers who repay their loans on time.
State finance minister Jayant Patil said the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government has lived up to the promise they made to the citizens and the amount will be deposited directly to the farmers’ savings accounts.
“The waiver will be unconditional, and the chief minister’s office will communicate the details in due course of time. It will benefit all kinds of farmers, including those who are dependent on horticulture,” said Patil.
Elaborating on the Shiv Bhojan scheme, which was announced in the Shiv Sena’s poll manifesto, Thackeray said, “Initially, the government will set up at least 50 centres across the state to provide a meal for ₹10. It will be replicated in other areas at a later stage,” he said.
Thackeray also announced an additional sum of ₹200, in addition to the current procurement price of ₹2500 per quintal for paddy, giving relief to rice-growers from eastern Vidarbha and Konkan.
Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis accused Thackeray of “betraying the farmers of Maharashtra” by not fulfilling his promise of a complete loan waiver. He also said the Sena-led government had failed to give assistance of ₹25,000 per hectare to farmers who suffered losses due to unseasonal rain, a demand which Thackeray himself had made earlier before he became the CM. Condemning the “paltry” amount of loan waiver, the Opposition members, led by Fadnavis, later staged a stormy walkout from the House.
The Fadnavis-led government had announced a loan waiver in June 2017. It had then announced that around 89 lakh farmers would be given waiver benefit worth ₹34,020 crore. However, two-and-a-half years after the announcement, 48 lakh farmers were given loan waiver worth ₹18,800 crore. The upper limit for the waiver was ₹1.5 lakh and many farmers, including the ones paying income tax, families of elected representatives and with government jobs, were excluded from the benefits. Many farmers with outstanding loan above the maximum waiver limits were not able to reap the benefit. The cut-off date for the waiver was June 30, 2017.
