Uddhav Thackeray to check if Sena workers helped farmers in Maharashtra’s rural areas or not

Thackeray will chair a meeting of ministers, party leaders, deputy leaders and heads of districts at the party headquarters at Shiv Sena Bhavan on Wednesday at noon.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will in an internal meeting on Wednesday take stock of the party’s activities in rural Maharashtra towards ensuring the implementation of the Rs34,022-crore farm loan waiver promised by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government.

The Sena chief has asked had his party leaders to go door-to-door in villages and inquire about the farmers’ debt burden. (File)

Thackeray will chair a meeting of ministers, party leaders, deputy leaders and heads of districts at the party headquarters at Shiv Sena Bhavan on Wednesday at noon.

Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) from the Rajya Sabha, said, “It is just a routine meeting where the Sena chief will look at the kind of work being done by heads of districts of the party across the state, take any feedback or resolve issues.

But, among other things, he is likely to look into how much work has been done by party representatives in rural areas to enroll farmers for the farm loan waiver and ensure its implementation.”

The party last month firmed up a plan to hold the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, of which it is a part, to task on the implementation of the farm loan waiver, for which the Shiv Sena had taken to the streets to demand.

The Sena chief asked his party leaders to go door-to-door in villages and inquire about the farmers’ debt burden, while separately demanding a list of all farmers who stand to benefit from the loan waiver scheme from the district cooperative banks.

After protests by farmers across the state, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis last month sanctioned Rs34,022 crore as loan waiver for farmers.

The scheme will benefit 89 lakh farmers in the state and make 40 lakh completely debt-free.