After five months, farm loans waiver starts in Maharashtra

Mumbai, Oct 18 (IANS) After nearly five months, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday gave a "Diwali gift" to state's farmers by starting the loans waiver process with a sum of Rs 4,000 crore to be distributed among 840,000 beneficiaries in the first phase of the massive Rs 34,000-crore scheme.

At a function, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched a portal in which the names of the beneficiary-farmers were uploaded which will be sent to the banks.

From a single bank account, the money would be transferred to various banks, which in turn would deposit the pre-defined amounts in the individual farmers' accounts as per the list, he said.

"We have released today (Wednesday) an amount of Rs 4,000 crore, of which Rs 3,200 crore will go towards loan waivers of 462,000 farmers and the rest Rs 800 crore would be paid as incentives to 378,000 farmers who have been repaying their loans on time," Fadnavis said.

He assured that payments funds under the Chhatrapati Shivaji Shetkari Sanman Yojana would be continuous process till every eligible farmers was benefited and by November 15, around 75 per cent of disbursals would be completed.

According to Fadnavis, government employees who also earn income from agricultural activities, legislators and others who are regular income tax payers have been exempted from the scheme.