The Maharashtra government on Sunday announced a loan waiver for farmers and decided to form a committee to decide the criteria of debt relief, after which cultivators called off their protests.
"The government has, in principle, decided to waive farmers' loans with certain stipulations. The loans of farmers with small and medium land holdings stand waived from today itself," Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said.
The move is expected to benefit 1.07 crore farmers in the state, who have land holdings of less than five acres, a farmer leader said. He said the loans of such small and medium farmers, worth Rs 30,000 crore, have been waived.
But a report in The Indian Express said that in order to offer the loan waiver, the government will have to arrange about Rs 1.14 lakh crore to write off the entire loan of 1.36 crore farmers in the state. This is going to be difficult for the state given the state’s debt burden that amounts to Rs 4 lakh crore, the report added.
The state budget for the financial year was Rs 2.57 crore. “Of this, Rs 1.77 lakh crore is essential commitment, which cannot be tampered with. This leaves the state with a miniscule 0.80 lakh crore,” an official told The Indian Express.
Farmer leader and Lok Sabha member Raju Shetti, who participated in the talks, said he was happy that their demands had been met.
“Our issues have been resolved. We have decided to temporarily call off our agitation, including the dharna protests scheduled for tomorrow and day after. However, if no satisfactory decision is taken (on the criterion for loan waiver) by 25 July, we will restart our stir,” Shetti said.
The Agitation
On 1 June, farmers from a village in Ahmednagar district went on strike followed by many farmers groups in other parts, who tried to suspend vegetable and milk supply to Mumbai.
Fadnavis had held a late night meeting and ensured withdrawal of the strike, but it emerged that some of the farmers' leaders, who were part of the talks with him in Mumbai, were close to the BJP and the RSS. This outraged the farmers and their agitation intensified in the following days.
Between Tuesday and Friday, five farmers ended their lives in various parts of the state. Police had said suicides by all the four farmers were due to non-payment of loans from banks and private money lenders.
A farmer in Solapur district, before ending his life due to debt, wrote that unless the chief minister visits his farm, his body should not be cremated.
Farmers in the state have been demanding a complete loan waiver besides clearing their 7/12 extracts (land records) of all liabilities and a guaranteed rate for milk among other demands.
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