Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that the State government would raise funds for the ₹34,022 crore farm loan waiver through novel programmes.
“On Saturday, the Maharashtra government announced a loan waiver scheme, which is going to put some burden on the State coffers. We will adopt some innovative schemes to raise funds for it,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
He said the government has already borrowed money to finance several other development works.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Fadnavis was speaking to a delegation of farmers from around 40 villages, including Puntambe in Ahmednagar district, which had turned out to be the nerve centre of the farmers’ agitation earlier this month. The delegation met him at the Sahyadri guest house on Tuesday afternoon.
“The Finance Department had recommended restricting the loan waiver amount to ₹15,000 crore, but we went ahead and offered a loan waiver of ₹34,000 crore. We wanted to offer the loan waiver to farmers, hence the scheme was announced. There could have been several excuses not to do so, but we wanted to do it,” the Chief Minister said.
The crop loan waiver scheme is estimated to benefit 89 lakh farmers out of the 1.31 crore farmers registered in the State. Mr. Fadnavis said, “Out of the 89 lakh farmers, the entire loan of 40 lakh farmers will be waived, which would make them eligible for fresh crop loans.”
ADVERTISEMENT
He said the government would like to introduce solar water pumps for agriculture purposes. “We can start from Ralegan Siddhi village,” he said. Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district is the native place of activist Anna Hazare.
The Fadnavis-led BJP government on Saturday announced a farm loan waiver scheme named Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krushi Sanman Yojana.
The Chief Minister had been under pressure to bring in an agrarian relief programme to help farmers hit by falling prices of produce and recurring drought.
Farmers in the State had launched an agitation on June 1 to press for several demands, including a loan waiver. The stir had disrupted supply of vegetables and other essentials to cities, including Mumbai, for some days. Their demand for loan waiver was backed by Opposition parties as well as the BJP’s alliance partner, Shiv Sena.
The stir was called off on June 11 after the State government assured farmers to bring out a comprehensive scheme to help them.