Maha to unveil first list of crop loan waiver beneficiaries on

The Maharashtra government will on Monday release the first list of 20,000 farmers benefited under the state crop loan waiver scheme, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said here on Sunday.

He said two villages from each district have been selected in the first list of the potential beneficiaries.

"A list of some 20,000 accounts will be released tomorrow which are potential beneficiaries of the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Shetkari Karjamukti Yojana. Two villages from each district has been selected in the first list," the chief minister told reporters on the eve of the Budget session of the state legislature.

The chief minister had last December announced the scheme writing off the loans of farmers whose crop loan outstanding is up to Rs 2 lakh upto September 30, 2019.

 

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who holds Finance portfolio, said, "The selection of two villages from every district is aimed at testing the efficiency of our system that is going to implement the crop loan waiver scheme. The money will be transferred directly into the loan accounts of farmers".

Earlier, the money used to go the state cooperation commissioner who used to route it to the loan accounts of farmers via district deputy registrar department.

"Bypassing this time-consuming exercise, the state government will now transfer the money directly into the loan accounts of farmers," Pawar said.

He said the second list of beneficiaries will be out by February 28 and that 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," he said.

Pawar also hit back at the erstwhile BJP government for claiming that 89 lakh farmers had benefited under their loan waiver scheme.

"(Contrary to their claim) The final number of the actual beneficiaries turned out to be quite less. We have avoided that (mess). Our Cooperation and Information and Technology departments worked together to come up with some filters to prepare a list of deserving beneficiaries," he added.