Under pressure from the united Opposition for loan waiver on the lines of Uttar Pradesh, the Maharashtra government is preparing a two-pronged strategy to prevent suicides by farmers and also get rid of the agrarian crisis once and for all.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has tasked Public Works Department Minister Chandrakant Patil, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and Agriculture Minister Pandurang Fundkar to prepare this strategy. The government is likely to unveil the strategy during the Monsoon session of the state legislature.
According to the strategy, the government would provide all agrarian inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, power, water and labour free of cost. In addition, it would provide an assured price for 22 important crops.
The free cost inputs and assured price for crops would put a burden of Rs 8-10 thousand crore on the state exchequer. If the state government were to go for a complete loan waiver, it would require Rs 30,500 crore.
The Devendra Fadnavis government has been under pressure from Opposition as well its alliance partner Shiv Sena for loan waiver ever since Uttar Pradesh Government waived farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh. If it can be done in UP, why not in Maharashtra, the parties ask.
Chief Minister Fadnavis had in the recently concluded budget session made it clear time and again that providing loan waiver at this juncture would hamper all other social sectors as well as infrastructure schemes and projects. He also made it clear that the government would be bringing the farmer out of agrarian crisis by introducing new measures. The CM said that loan waiver would prove counter productive as the more than one crore farmers who repaying loans regularly would feel that it was wrong on their part to repay the loans.
A senior minister said that as it is whenever there is drought, the state government is required to pay at least Rs 4- 5 thousand crore towards compensation to farmers.
The 22 crops for which the government plans to provide free input costs include tur, onion, grapes, cotton, oranges, tomato, chana dal and soybean. The minister said that if the market prices are below the assured price, government would bear the difference so that farmer gets the assured price for the produce. He said that the assured price would be decided on the basis of fluctuations in the last 10 years for the particular farm produce.
Reducing input costs and assured price for the produce is expected to fetch reasonable incomes to farmers.
CROP CIRCLE
1.38 crore
The number of registered farmers in the state
1 crore
Farmers who are paying their loan installments regularly
31 lakh
Farmers who are not in a position to repay the loan instalments
1 crore
Marginal farmers who are expected to benefit from this policy
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