As part of its first list of beneficiaries in the much-discussed farm loan waiver scheme released by it, the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government on Monday wrote off the loans of 15,358 farmers from 68 villages from across the State.
The 15,358 farmers, whose names figured in the first list of loan waiver beneficiaries, are among the 34,83,908 farmers who have been identified as the total number of beneficiaries in the “Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Karj mukti Yojana”.
While releasing the first list of beneficiaries in the loan waiver scheme, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar interacted with some of the farmer-beneficiaries from Parbani, Ahmednagar and Amravati districts of the state through video-conferencing from Mumbai.
The Chief Minister and his deputy interacted with loan waiver beneficiary-farmers from three districts on the first day of the budget session of the Maharashtra Legislature which got underway on Monday.
The names of farmers from 68 villages in the districts of Parbhani, Ahmednagar and Amravati districts, in the first list of loan waiver beneficiaries. “Once the process of loan waiver is completed, the farmers concerned release will be issued debt-free certificates. The loan waiver has started at the district level,” a senior Government official said.
“We have collated the names of 34,83,908 farmer-beneficiaries in a span of 35 days. During the past 15 days, we have audited the details of loans taken by the farmers. We will implement the loan waiver scheme in a computerised system,” Uddhav said.
“We are not doing any favour to the farmers by implementing the loan waiver scheme. In reality, you can us in the Government as beneficiaries because receiving the blessings of farmers through the implementation of loan waiver scheme.
The loans that are being waiver as part of the “Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Karj Mukti Yojana” range from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2 lakh per farmers.
Like Uddhav himself said on Sunday, the Maharashtra government plans to complete the entire loan waiver scheme in the next three scheme.
It is not clear yet as to how different is the “Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Karj Mukti Yojana” from the “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana” announced by the BJP-led saffron alliance government in June 2017.
Under the Rs 34,022 crore “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana” announced by the previous Devendra Fadnavis Government, there were beneficiaries was 89 lakh farmers.
The Devendra Fadnavis had said then that of the total identified beneficiaries, 40 lakh farmers were expected to become totally debt-free. Of the total beneficiaries under the scheme, a total 36.10 lakh farmers were eligible for a financial assistance of Rs 1.50 lakh each to clear their piled up loans.
It is not known yet if the previous BJP-led saffron alliance government and if yes, how many farmers had been benefitted from the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation’s loan waiver scheme.