6.68 lakh Maha farmers benefit from loan waiver

MUMBAI: Even after the announcement by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that 80 per cent of the eligible farmers would get the loan waiver amount in a month, Rs 3,000 crore has been credited to 6.68 lakh farmers’ bank account. 

Fadnavis had announced last month that about 80 per cent of the farmers would get benefit of the loan waiver scheme in one month. 

To speed up the disbursal process, the State government has replaced a private firm with its own agency, Mahaonline, to weed out duplication in the list of beneficiaries. 

After announcing the loan waiver of Rs 34,020 crore to benefit 89 lakh farmers, the Fadnavis government began the process of scrutinising the application received from the farmers with the data received from the banks. 

“Some incomplete forms have been sent back to farmers. Once they complete them, we will consider them for the loan waiver if they are eligible. This scheme will not stop until every eligible farmer benefits from it,” said an officer from the  Co-operative Department. 

The State government has received 76 lakh applications for the loan waiver. It believes that of these 65 lakh farmers are eligible for the waiver. According to the officer, in the first phase, the target is to cover more than 8 lakh farmers. 

The Cooperation Department has prepared the list of beneficiaries and started to credit the amount into the account of eligible farmers. 

According to the officers from the Co-operative Department the amount will be credited to the beneficiaries’ accounts after verifying details with the bank and what the beneficiary has submitted in the loan waiver application form. 

Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh said the preparation of the list of 70% beneficiaries will be completed very soon. “The actual disbursement has started and the amount will be credited to all eligible farmers’ bank accounts as per the available data with us,” said Deshmukh. 

“In Solapur district, the amount has been credited on about 10,000 farmers’ accounts. In the same way, it has been credited across the state,” he said.