Govt will soon announce list of farmers: Devendra Fadnavis

Refuting allegations that statistics about farmers and the loan waiver is suspicious, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday informed that the government is going to announce a list of 3.6 million farmers soon.

Speaking to the press, Fadnavis said that a detailed list of farmers would take time as there are four lakh farmers whose loans were restructured. He said that names of all the farmers along with details of loan and other particulars are with respective banks as well as the state level bankers’ committee.

Pointing out that Union Government in the past had announced a loan waiver package for the entire country in 2008, Fadnavis said the same conditions have been adopted for the Maharashtra loan waiver package. He said that state government has made it clear that if the government deposits money in to farmers’ accounts, banks generally use it for repayment of interest. Hence, the government will provide Rs 1.5 lakh to farmers having dues over Rs 1.5 lakh, so that the 7/12 extract of the farmer can be made blank once again.

Fadnavis said that statistics have been presented to the Cabinet which would be made public soon. He said the names of the farmers will be announced district-wise. Pointing it out that there has been a trend of circulating wrong information through WhatsApp, Fadnavis said that all the farmers who avail the benefit of loan waiver do not have a recovery worth Rs 1.50 lakh, and calculating the amount due by simple multiplication would be wrong.

Looking at options

Admitting that the loan waiver package would put pressure on development, Fadnavis said that some of the works would have to be deferred. The government would try to raise funds for the projects through special purpose vehicles and other means in addition to exploring options to reduce undue government expenditure.