Banks: Unable to pay Rs 10,000 to each of 34L farmers

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s move to provide immediate loans of Rs 10,000 to every farmer who defaulted in the last four years, has backfired. Sixteen of the district cooperative banks, which were to disburse these loans, have written to the state government saying they cannot do so because of inadequate funds.

While accepting the farmers’ demand of loan waiver, the Devendra Fadnavis government had also declared an immediate loan of Rs 10,000 to each farmer so as to enable them to buy seeds and other materials for farming. A total of 34 lakh farmers, who have defaulted on loans since 2012, are eligible for this loan.

Going by the state government’s announcement, district cooperative banks need to provide an immediate loan to these farmers and write government’s guarantee before their names. Sources from the cooperative ministry confirmed that 16 district banks have expressed their inability to distribute loans due to inadequate funds. Meanwhile, cooperative minister Subhash Deshmukh said, “ We will solve this issue with the help of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank.”

Interestingly, the Nagpur District Cooperative Bank in the chief minister’s home district and the Solapur District Cooperative Bank, which is in Mr Deshmukh’s district, too are part of these 16 banks.  

The 16 banks include, Dhule, Nandurbar, Nashik, Jalgaon from north Maharashtra;

Solapur from western Maharashtra; Parbhani, Hingoli, Jalana, Beed, Osmanabad and Nanded from Marathwada, and Vidarbha Amravati, Buldana, Nagpur, Yavatmal and Wardha.

Attacking the government for its failure to deliver, opposition leader in assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said, “This shows the manner in which this government functions. It keeps announcing decisions from Mumbai, just for the sake of publicity. But on ground, nothing changes. Our farmers are experiencing this every day.”