MUMBAI: The much publicised and advertised farm loan waiver scheme of Maharashtra government which got launched during Diwali just over a month ago has so far benefited just 1% farmers of what it was actually meant to benefit according to the information given by state's minister for cooperatives department. Government has now claimed that the waiver benefit will reach 80% farmers by end of November but that seems a very ambitious target.
The government till now has managed to waive off loans of only 55,000 farmers, where as the government had claimed that the beneficiaries of the scheme will be in the range of 55.58 lakh farmers all over Maharashtra. During the recent festive season of Diwali the government has distributed a certificates of loan waiver to farmers. The number of the farmers were only 55 thousand according to records.
Subhash Deshmukh, minster of cooperatives gave the information about the loan waiver on Wednesday. He said that this year around 55,000 farmers have been benefited from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Sanman Yojna. Rs 370 crore have been deposited to their bank accounts. "we hope that till the end of November 80 percent of the farmers will get benefit of the scheme," Deshmukh said. But looking at the overall situation its difficult to imagine how the waiver will reach 80% famers in the state till the end of this month!
Just a day ago launching a scathing attack on the government, opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) slammed the government for not clearing the accounts of farmers under the loan waiver scheme. Ajit Pawar, former deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader had alleged that as per his calculations, the government failed to complete the loan waiver process totally. “The government tried to tied the farmers with the online process," he said.
Minister Deshmukh said, that the loan waiver in Congress-NCP regime took 10 months to complete. “With the use of new technology, will show the opposition that we can do what they could not do during their time,” Deshmukh said.