The Maharashtra government onMonday tabled supplementary demands worth Rs 24,000 crore for 2019-20 in the state Assembly, including Rs 15,000 crore for the implementation of the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule farm loan waiver scheme.A contingency fund advance of Rs 10,000 crore was withdrawn on February 20 and an order for its utilisation was issued under a government resolution (GR) the same day.To recoup the advance of Rs 10,000 crore and make an additional provision of Rs 14,000 crore, a supplementary demand of Rs 15,000 crore is proposed, as per the report of supplementary demands tabled in the House.The government on Monday released the first list of 20,000 farmers to get benefits under the state crop loan waiver scheme.Two villages from each district have been selected in the first list of the potential beneficiaries.The chief minister in December last year announced the scheme writing off loans of farmers whose crop loan outstanding is up to Rs 2 lakh till September 30, 2019.Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who holds the finance portfolio, on Monday said the selection of two villages from every district is aimed at testing the efficiency of the system that is going to implement the crop loan waiver scheme.The money will be transferred directly into the loan accounts of farmers, he said.He said the second list of beneficiaries will be out by February 28 and the entire scheme will conclude by April this year."We have so far prepared a list of 35 lakh bank accounts which are likely to become eligible for the loan waiver scheme. Once few details are available, those accounts will be filtered further and finalised for the transfer of money," Pawar said.The opposition BJP has been trying to corner the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray over the farm loan waiver issue, demanding that debts of cultivators be written off completely.
