Rajasthan govt gives relief to farmers; Maharashtra restructures crop loans

The race to court agro growers with sops and subsidies in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections seemed to have picked up pace in just two days.

Following in the footsteps of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot waived off loans of 50 lakh farmers on the first day after assuming office.

The state government decided to waive off farm loans up to Rs 2 lakhs. The decision stands implemented with immediate effect. "The waiver will cost the state exchequer Rs 18,000 crore," a government official said.

Gehlot said that all loans taken by the farmers from cooperative banks will be waived off. Loans taken by farmers from nationalised banks, rural banks and private banks will be waived off upto a maximum limit of Rs 2 lakh, he added.

He said, "The farmers are committing suicides in state which was never heard of." He added that the beneficiaries can get their loans taken till November 30, 2018 written off. The decision stands for all short-term loans taken by farmers in the state, he added.

Hours after it took charge of Madhya Pradesh, the Congress had announced to write off farmers' debts up to Rs 2 lakh, promised farmer pension and a minimum support price for crops as per the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations. Earlier, it had doled out loan waivers in Karnataka and Punjab. Currently, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh – both ruled by BJP – too have crop loan waiver schemes.

In Maharashtra, the BJP decided to restructure the loans of farmers in the drought-affected areas. The government asked banks not to recover the crop loans and even permit the farmers to restructure their crop loans in order to pacify the rural unrest. Earlier, it had announced a power bill waiver of Rs 625 crores for farmers in Gujarat, and a loan waiver in Assam.

In a notification issued on Wednesday, the Maharashtra cooperative marketing and federation department stated that due to the severity of drought the farmers' crop loans will be restructured in 180 drought-affected talukas of Maharashtra. Government has declared serious drought in 112 talukas while 39 talukas are suffering from mid-level drought. "Now, the short-term crop loans will be converted into a medium-term with the payment duration for five years. Farmers are unable to pay due to crops failure hence they will not be considered as a defaulter. They can pay the loans in instalments in the next five years. Moreover, they will also be eligible to take a crop loan next year as well," explained senior official from the department. This decision will be applicable to government-owned, cooperative and commercial banks.

Maharashtra government had waived off 41 lakh farmers a crop loan of Rs 17,000 crore last year against the announcement of Rs 34,000 crore.

SOP Story Continues

• Loans of up to Rs 2 lakh have been waived off with immediate effect by the Rajasthan government
• In Maharashtra, the government has decided to restructure the loans of farmers in the state’s drought-affected areas