Farmers’ leaders have largely lauded the budget, stating that it was “more constructive” and offered a better deal for farmers as opposed to the budgets of the erstwhile Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.
Swabhimani Paksha chief Raju Shetti and Dr. Ajit Nawale, State general secretary of the CPI (M)-affiliated All Indian Kisan Sabha, have said the budget has made efforts to be agrarian-centric and bring some measure of relief to the rural hinterland. Mr. Shetti said, “This budget appears to have the farmer in its vision and is not a one-sided, corporate one as presented earlier. It certainly is better than the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government with Ajit Pawar announcing relief to farmers with loans of over ₹2 lakh, while providing an incentive of ₹50,000 for those who took crop loans in 2018-19 and had repaid their dues.”
However, Mr. Shetti said the State government ought to have increased the incentive amount for farmers repaying dues regularly from ₹25,000 to ₹75,000 instead of the ₹50,000 announced. He said the other notable aspect of the budget was the government’s efforts to resuscitate the powerloom industry, which has significant clusters in Malegaon, Solapur, Bhiwandi and Ichalkaranji.
Dr. Nawale welcomed Mr. Pawar’s announcements of a subsidy scheme of 80% to small and marginal farmers and 75% to multiple land holders for extending the drip irrigation scheme for crops to cover the whole State instead of a few talukas. He said, “While the budget is somewhat of a mixed bag, there are several positive aspects and the government has at least made efforts to give justice to farmers, notably in relief to those having a loan of more than ₹2 lakh. Particularly laudable is Mr. Pawar’s announcement of ₹10,035 crore for the Water Resources Department to increase the ground water level in the State.”
Dr. Nawale said the State government ought to have given more incentive money to farmers who had been repaying loans regularly. “This section [of farmers repaying dues regularly] constitutes around 45 lakh farmers and a significant proportion of them, too, were afflicted by natural calamity and inclement weather. So, giving them an incentive of only ₹50,000 feels like a bit of ‘punishment’ for not defaulting on their loans,” he said.
Likewise, both leaders welcomed the government’s announcement of launching a ₹10,000 crore scheme for the installation of five lakh solar pumps in next five years to supply power to farmers during the day. “The proposed solar pump scheme will depend a lot on its implementation. Furthermore, I would have appreciated if the government had taken some concrete measures to deal with bogus electricity bills,” Mr. Shetti said.
Dr. Nawale said he had hoped that the budget would make some mention of dealing with GST on farm equipment and seeds and fertilizers, even though it was a Central government issue.
