Maharashtra govt's farm loan waiver scheme won't help much: Darekar

Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Pravin Darekar on Saturday said the loan waiver scheme announced by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray would not be of much help to farmers. He said immediate relief of Rs 25,000 per hectare to farmers affected by crop damage due to unseasonal rains should have been announced instead.

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Pravin Darekar on loan waiver scheme

Thackeray told the Assembly, under the new Mahatma Jyotirao Phule loan waiver scheme, crop loans outstanding upto September 30, 2019, will be written off subject to an upper limit of Rs 2 lakh. Speaking to the media, Darekar said:

"We expected CM Uddhav Thackeray to waive off the entire loan of farmers. (Former CM) Fadnavis had announced relief of Rs 25,000 per hectare to farmers affected by unseasonal rains. But Thackeray has forgotten this assurance."

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He said the CM had announced a "mere Rs 2 lakh loan waiver", adding that several other issues the BJP brought to the notice of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government during the winter session, which ended on Saturday, were ignored. These included speeding up of the Marathwada water scheme, stalled irrigation projects as well as reservations to the Vanjari community and welfare programmes for Maratha and tribal communities, Darekar said.

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