Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday instructed banks and District Collectors to ensure that only crop loans of farmers are waived under the Mahatma Phule farm loan waiver scheme and no other loan is added to the list.
According to sources within the Chief Minister’s Office, the directions were issued to ensure transparency, anticipating the possibility of banks including other farm-related loans in the scheme to lower NPAs.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has asked Collectors to take action if information of non-crop loan accounts is submitted under the scheme.
Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Pawar, Finance Minister Jayant Patil, and Shiv Sena minister Anil Parab held a video-conference with all District Collectors on Friday and a meeting with the State Level Bankers’ Committee to discuss the loan waiver. According to sources, the government will spend ₹21,216 crore on the crop loan waiver, which is estimated to benefit 30.57 lakh farmers.
‘Empathy needed’
“This loan waiver has been announced by the government for farmers and not by banks to settle their NPAs. It is the responsibility of the Revenue Department to ensure this scheme is successful. There is a possibility that beneficiaries raise questions. It is expected that every query is resolved with empathy,” Mr. Thackeray said in the video-conference.
Banks have also been instructed that farmers will not be asked to fill forms to avail benefits of the scheme, and it is the responsibility of the banks that all the information is filled correctly.
An official who attended the discussions on Friday said, “The list of farmers’ accounts which are not linked to Aadhaar will be announced on January 7. Special buses will be arranged in every village to transport farmers to the government’s Aaple Seva Kendra, where these formalities will be completed.” The entire process is likely to be completed by May 2020.
Each District Collector is being asked to set up a dashboard at the office which will be updated daily on the progress of the waiver.
