Being behind bars no bar for farmer-prisoners to seek loan

The Maharashtra government's mega loan waiver scheme has benefited even imprisoned farmers, said an official.

Eighty-eight prisoners, who are farmers by profession and lodged in Nagpur and Nashik central jails, were encouraged to apply for loan waiver under the scheme announced in June last year by the government. Of these, 56 have received its benefits, former Nagpur collector Sachin Kurve told PTI.

Kurve served as collector of Nagpur district from May 2015 to April 2018.

Kurve, currently Mumbai suburban district collector, said the applications of other farmer-prisoners, apart from 88, were rejected as they had provided insufficient documents or their names did not match with that on their Aadhaar cards.

He said prisoners were encouraged to apply for the scheme. They were provided the necessary guidance and support by the Collector's office and the welfare committees formed for jail inmates.

The collectorate staff and the welfare committees are in regular touch with prisoners. They provide facilities for them like making their meetings with relatives easier, arranging for video conferencing for court appearances and better toilets, among others, the officer said.

"While we were providing these facilities, we noticed some of these prisoners, who were farmers by profession, had taken loans (for agriculture purposes).

"Thus, we started campaigns and organised special camps inside jails to provide them with Aadhaar cards so that they become eligible for the scheme," Kurve said.

He said the initiative was taken on instructions from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who said no eligible farmer should be left out of the scheme.

An official from the home department said of the 88 jailed farmers, a few have been convicted by courts, while the others are undertrials.

Most of the convicts were booked for crimes like cheating, rioting and theft, he said but declined to disclose the nature of cases in which the other farmers were arrested.

Minister for Cooperative Subhash Deshmukh said no eligible farmer will be deprived of the scheme.

"We will try to give the benefits to other prisoners (who are also farmers) as well," said Deshmukh.

Welcoming the government's initiative, noted farm activist Kishor Tiwari said those prisoner-cultivators, whose claims have been rejected, should be provided help so that they, too, benefit from the scheme.

"We welcome the initiative. Though farmers are behind bars, their families should get some relief through the scheme. The government should help with the documentation process for those whose claims have been rejected," he said.

The state cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval to extend the loan waiver scheme to farmers who have defaulted on loans since 2001. The previous cut-off was 2009.

According to official figures, a sum of Rs 15,700 crore has been disbursed to more than 35 lakh farmers till now.

A total of 46.52 lakh farmers have been found to be eligible for benefits. Of these, 30.38 lakh have applied for full loan waiver, while the rest have sought relief under the incentive component (for repaying loans on time) of the Rs 34,000-crore scheme.