Mumbai: A day after the Maharashtra government asked banks to give interim loans of ₹10,000 to farmers to help them with their kharif sowing, the Congress on demanded that this funding be on a per-acre basis.
“Every farmer has different landholdings,” Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Ashok Chavan said, “The government will be providing ₹10,000 to a farmer with one acre and same to those with more than that. How will it help for sowing ?” Mr Chavan said that the amount being on a per-acre basis would actually help farmers. He also said, “We demand absolute loan waiver for farmers without any conditions. We believe that majority of farmers should benefit, and conditions should not eliminate farmers from getting the benefits.” He said that the government’s intention seems more about deleting farmers from the list of beneficiaries than adding them. He was speaking after the party’s senior leadership in the state met on Wednesday, following Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil asking Mr. Chavan and other oppostion leaders for their suggestions regarding the waiver.
Mr. Patil, with Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh, also met with alliance partner Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and briefed him on the waiver plan. After the meeting, Mr. Patil said that Mr. Thackeray wanted the benefits of the plan to reach more farmers, but without hampering the state’s economy. He would continue with such meetings to help arrive at the eligibility criteria for farmers to avail of the waiver, he said. “Everything cannot be decided at a single meeting.”
Demonetisation’s long shadow
On Tuesday, the government had asked banks — including beleaguered district central co-operative banks (DCCBs) — to help farmers with loans of ₹10,000. DCCBs have been struggling with liquidity problems post-demonetisation.
Most agricultural market transactions are traditionally in cash. DCCBs, and farmer leaders, maintain that demonetisation affected farmers’ adversely. “The cash crunch was so severe that farmers had to sell their produce at rates much lesser than what they anticipated,” said Raju Shetty, Lok Sabha MP from Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS). Ajit Nawale of Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (AIKS) said that the currency shortage was one of the reasons why farmers were extremely angry: “After two years of drought, [there was] good rain and good crops. Demonetisation ruined it completely.”
The government had initially said that the exercise was aimed at curbing black money and counterfeiting. RBI data shows that counterfeits were a negligible fraction of the total notes in circulation. Later, the government changed the narrative, saying it would push towards a cashless economy and encourage digital payments. Again, RBI data shows usage of cash has been steadily growing over the last few months, an effective remonetisation.
