'Needy farmers to get loan waiver, not those building farmhouses, bungalows', Minister Bawankule

Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said the state is considering targeted loan relief through individual surveys, focusing on farmers on the verge of suicide rather than those building farmhouses and bungalows

Mumbai: Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule has said that the state government will waive loans of only needy farmers, and not those building farmhouses and bungalows.

"Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced in the legislature that farmers in Maharashtra who genuinely need a loan waiver should get it. Why should someone who builds a bungalow or farmhouse on agricultural land and takes a loan be entitled to a loan waiver?" Bawankule told reporters on Friday.

Bawankule said instead of a blanket waiver, the government is working towards granting relief to poor farmers whose fields yield nothing, those who have taken loans and are on the verge of suicide.

"We are trying to move forward with a plan to conduct individual surveys and provide a loan waiver to such farmers," he informed.

During the recently concluded monsoon session of the state legislature, the Opposition had questioned the government about when the waiver would be announced.

At the time, the government had informed the House that a committee had been set up to study whether a waiver should be granted and how it should be implemented. A decision would be taken after the committee submits its report, the government had said.

The demand for a loanwaiver has been intensifying across the state in recent weeks, with opposition parties cornering the government over the issue.