As many as 813 farmers from Mumbai and its suburbs figure among a total 36,10,216 farmers who are eligible for a financial assistance of Rs 1.50 lakh each under the loan waiver scheme “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana” announced by the Maharashtra Government.
Of the 813 farmers from Mumbai, 694 farmers are from Mumbai City district, while the remaining 119 farmers from Mumbai Suburban district.
The presence of debt-trapped “farmers” among the total 36.10 lakh farmers who have been identified as beneficiaries for a loan waiver amounting to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh per farmer raised eyebrows in the State political circles on Tuesday, minutes after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis put out a tweet, listing the number of beneficiaries in each of the districts across the State.
When the attention of the Chief Minister’s Office was drawn to the presence of Mumbai “farmers” among the loan waiver beneficiaries, a senior official said, “We will check the credentials of each of the beneficiaries in the metropolis before the loan is waived”.
In his clarification, Maharashtra Co-operation Minister Subhash Deshmukh said, “The farmers in questions might have taken loans from banks in the metropolis though their agriculture fields are in rural areas of the State. We would check before waive the loans. If there is something amiss, we will take necessary action against the farmers concerned”.
Under the loan waiver scheme involving a sum of Rs 34,022 crore, the total number of beneficiaries is 80 lakh. Of them, early 40 lakh farmers are expected to become totally debt-free, a situation that will facilitate them to take fresh loans from banks.
As per the statistics of loan waiver beneficiaries put out by the chief minister, Buldhana accounts for the highest chunk of beneficiaries — 2,49,818 farmers while Yavatmal, which had seen the maximum number of suicides, comes second at 2,42,471, followed by Beed’s 2,08,480 farmers and Ahmednagar’s 2,00,869 benfeciaries.
The other districts with maximum share of beneficiaries under the scheme are: Jalna — 1,96,463, Jalgaon — 1,94,320, Pune — 1,83,209, Amravati — 1,72,760, Parbhani — 1,63,760, Nanded — 1,56,849, Aurangabad — Aurangabad — 1,48,322, Nashik — 1,36,569, Akola — 1,11,625 and Solapur — 1,08,533.
The remaining 17 districts fall in the category below Rs 1,00,000 loan waiver beneficiaries list drawn up for the loan waiver scheme. Interestingly enough, the coastal Konkan region has the least number of beneficiaries — Sindhudurg (24,447), Thane (23,505), Raigad (10,809) and Palghar (918).