Maharashtra to waive loans from October-end; 14 lakh farmers submit forms

The government expects about 70 lakh out of 89 lakh farmers will benefit from the loan waiver and incentive schemes

With more than 14.11 lakh farmers registering for the loan waiver in the past two weeks, the state government aims to complete the process by September 15 and begin disbursing the amount by the end of October.

According to the data by the cooperation department, 14.11 lakh farmers submitted their forms with all details, including their personal information, the category in which they seek the waiver and a declaration that the information is true. (For representation)

The government expects about 70 lakh out of 89 lakh farmers will benefit from the loan waiver and incentive schemes.

According to the data by the cooperation department, 14.11 lakh farmers submitted their forms with all details, including their personal information, the category in which they seek the waiver and a declaration that the information is true. To avoid corruption, the state government has made it mandatory for farmers to fill the application form. To facilitate the filling of forms, it has opened 26,000 service centres in 42,000 villages.

“The centres will function until all beneficiaries fill up their forms. Though the pace was slow in the beginning as the crop insurance scheme was extended to August 5, we are now receiving at least 1.25 lakh forms daily. About 14.11 farmers have registered themselves till Thursday. Besides Aaple Sarkar centres and citizen services centres at villages levels, cooperative institutions and district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) have opened are helping farmers,” said cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh.

According to an official from the cooperation department, 70 lakh farmers are expected to apply for the loan waiver.

“Once the application process is completed by September 15, auditors and cooperation officers will verify application forms, which is likely to take a month. The actual write-off will begin by the end of October. The application forms are linked to Aadhar cards to weed out duplication. Some unqualified people have used farmers’ names to avail loans. The role of such people will be eliminated during the verification process and bring down the number of actual beneficiaries,” the official said.

About 65% outstanding loans are from nationalised banks while the rest are from DCCBs. During the last loan waiver in 2008-09, 75% of the amount went to the DCCBs.

“As a major chunk of the loan is from nationalised banks, the chances of corruption automatically drop ,” the official said.