On Tuesday, the Maharashtra government asked district central co-operative banks (DCCBs) and nationalised banks to help farmers who have defaulted on farm loans by giving them loans of ₹10,000 so that they can begin sowing their Kharif crop.
The State government will act as a guarantee for these loans, said Subhash Deshmukh, Minister for Co-operation, Marketing and Textiles.
Lighting a small flame of hope for DCCBs — struggling post-demonetisation after the Centre ruled that old currency notes their customers had deposited would not be exchanged by the RBI, effectively freezing much of their assets — Mr. Deshmukh said that nationalised banks have been asked to adopt each of the 13 DCCBs in the State. “We have also written to RBI to not only provide new notes to these banks but also to pay interest for the delay.”
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Affidavits for waiver
Meanwhile, to help ensure that “real farmers should benefit from this waiver”, Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said, “There will be strict conditions which will ensure that this happens. In addition, an affidavit will be taken from farmers who avail of the waiver, stating they fulfil the conditions.”
The conditions will be set by a joint panel of farmers and government officials. On Tuesday, farmers’ representatives submitted to Mr. Patil a list of names of people who will participate in the discussions.
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Don’t want waiver: MLA
The government has also appealed to those who can pay their loans to voluntarily come forward and forgo the waiver.
Rahul Kul, MLA from Daund, and former NCP MLA Sahebrao Patil have already declared that they will not avail the waiver.
“I am a farmer and have been periodically repaying the instalments of money borrowed by me. I will continue to do so in future as well. I, thus, request you to exempt me from the loan waiver scheme,” Mr. Kul said.
(With inputs from PTI)