As the farmers strike in Maharashtra entered the sixth day on Tuesday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that his government is working towards implementation of what would be the “biggest ever” farm loan waiver.
“We are looking at the issue, we are studying it…after meeting the farmers’ leaders last week, we have announced the 31 October deadline for implementation….this is going to be the biggest loan waiver ever,” Fadnavis, who was accompanied by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, told reporters in Mumbai.
Fadanvis’s statement came ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting where various issues including the farmers’ agitation was discussed in detail.
The statement comes on the day when former union agriculture minister and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar called on prime minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue of loan waiver for farmers.
“We shall be writing off the loans of all deserving and needy farmers. For this, we shall make use of IT-based technology… It will be the biggest farm loan waiver in history….whom to give, how to give, who would be eligible…various factors would be looked into,” he said, speaking about the four month timeframe.
He also said that to ensure that farmers are benefitted, the government is also studying an IT-based implementation method of Andhra Pradesh. “In the past, there were irregularities in the loan waiver schemes and to avoid this a proper seamless system would be in place,” he said.
On the strike, he said that on Monday 300 of the 307 APMCs were functional. “Of the seven non-function, four had weekly closure,” he said. “The government is ready for talks…we are ready to talk to farmers leaders who are genuine and who are not looking at political gains,” the chief minister said, adding that we are definitely not going to succumb to the pressure of people who are firing over the shoulders of farmers.
Published 06 June 2017, 11:31 IST