Nagpur: In a move that will boost the number of beneficiaries eligible for the
loan waiver scheme, a state cabinet sub-committee has decided to consider an individual instead of the family as the unit for the Rs1.5 lakh loan waiver. This was a key demand of the ‘long march’ of farmers from Nashik to Mumbai led by the Kisan Sabha in March.
The move will raise the number of beneficiaries by 5 lakh and at the same increased the waiver burden on the exchequer by an estimated Rs1,000 crore as well, said an official from the cooperative department.
When the Rs34,022 crore loan waiver scheme was introduced in June 2017, the collective accounts of an entire family was considered for the waiver. This included the husband, wife and minor children. The outstanding crop loans of the family were added and the limit of the waiver given was Rs1.5 lakh.
Now the outstanding loans of an individual will be considered for waiver. This means that a husband and wife can separately avail of the waiver up to the limit of Rs1.5 lakh each.
“As a result of this decision, the loan waiver scheme will reach a large number of farmers,” state cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh told the state assembly. “Even after expanding the scope of the ‘Chhatrapti Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman yojana’ the expenditure would not go beyond Rs34,000 crore as per the estimated earlier,” he later told TOI.
The Kisan Sabha has welcomed the decision. “In March after the ‘long march’, the chief minister had assured us that this would be done. It will result in a large number of farmers who were excluded from the scheme to get benefit,” said Ajit Naval of the Kisan Sabha.
The loan waiver scheme has been extended to around 38 lakh farmers so far. The state government had received applications from 77 lakh farmer accounts for the scheme. These are still being scrutinized and matched with eligibility norms.
The scheme had come under criticism from the beginning for having stringent eligibility norms which farmer groups said had excluded a large number of farmers.
According to the updated data, the state has released Rs22,000 crore allotted to 51 lakh farmers of which Rs15,771 crore has been disbursed.
