Fadnavis says 4 mn Maharashtra farmers got Rs 19,537 cr loan waiver

The Maharashtra government has approved the farm loan waiver of 4.1 million farmers to the tune of Rs 19,537 crore till now, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said today.

"Around 77 lakh online applications were received out of which action has been taken on 69 lakh applications after resolving the lacunae. The government has, uptil now, approved Rs 19,537 crore for 41 lakh farmers accounts," a statement issued by the Chief Minister's office said.

Out of Rs 19,537 crore, a sum of Rs 4,673 crore is part of One Time Settlement (OTS), the statement added.

Fadnavis chaired a meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee to review the progress of crediting of waiver amount into accounts of farmers under the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman scheme.

The CM asked banks to speed up the process of actual disbursement into farmer accounts and also insisted for more coordinated efforts in implementing the OTS.

Meanwhile, the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde claimed that the figures provided by Fadnavis were "fake" and asked him to reveal the names of farmers who have benefitted from the scheme.

"This is the seventh day of our padyatra. Till now we have not met a single farmer who received the loan waiver amount," he said.

He claimed that the foot march by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) against the government will have disastrous consequences for the BJP.

Munde further said that he saw crops destroyed by bollworms when he visited a cotton farm at Pavnar village in Wardha district.

"Instead of compensating the farmer for the loss, the farmer told us that government officials asked him to sell whatever cotton was left and pay the electricity bill," he said.

Munde added that the farmer, as a mark of protest against the state government, asked him to run a plough on a grown cotton field.

"Since the farmer forced me to do so, I did it with a heavy heart," he said.