Maharashtra govt extends farm loan waiver scheme to defaults between 2001-09

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval to extend the loan waiver scheme to those defaulted by farmers since 2001. The existing deadline for the scheme was 2009.

The benefit of the scheme will be given to only those farmers who did not get any relief in the 2007 and 2008, because the Congress-NCP government at that time had set a land ownership cap of 2 hectares for a farmer to be eligible for loan waiver.

Many farmers from Vidarbha, where the land holding capacity is higher, were left out.

Preliminary figures with the government shows that after this decision 3.49 lakh farmers will be benefited. A total burden of Rs 3149 crore will have to be borne by the government, said officials.

"It is a historic decision taken by the cabinet," said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

This was one of the main demands of the farmer's representatives who led a huge protest called the Kisan Long March, in which farmers, mostly adivasis came on foot from Nashik to Mumbai in the scorching heat. The main demand of the protest was implementation of the Forest Right's Act and allotment of the land strips that these tribals have been tilling for decades in their name.

Officials also said that the cabinet has also decided to include term loans given for Poly house, Shed net and Emu bird farming. "The government is yet to seek applications and the number of beneficiaries and the amount that will be required are yet to be calculated," said an official. He, however, added that if the farmers have already availed the Rs 1.5 lakh as crop loan waiver, they will not be able to avail the benefit of term loan waiver.

The last date of application for the loan waiver is May 1, but after the cabinet decision, the date for application for these beneficiaries will be extended, said officials.

So far, Rs 15700 crore has been disbursed to more than 35 lakh farmers. The total budget for the scheme is Rs 34000 crore. A total of 46.52 lakh farmers have been found to be eligible of which 30.38 lakh applied for the full loan waiver, while 16.14 lakh applied for the incentive amount.