50 lakh farmers excluded from Maharashtra loan waiver: Congress

The Congress said that as many as 50 lakh farmers have been excluded from the ambitious loan waiver scheme worth Rs 34,000 crore announced by the Maharashtra government last year.

Image used for representational purpose. (File photo)

MUMBAI: Lodging a scathing attack against the BJP ahead of the extravagant event of party foundation day here in Mumbai, the Congress on Thursday said that as many as 50 lakh farmers have been excluded from the ambitious loan waiver scheme worth Rs 34,000 crore announced by the state government last year.

“In the first place the loan waiver scheme was not announced by the government willingly. The pressure from the farmers forced the government to announce it. But, not the government is just killing time and excluding names of the farmers whose names had been sent to the verification committees,” state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said as he addressed a media conference.

He also produced documentary evidence that corroborated the charges levelled by him against the government.

“Initially it was said that the scheme would benefit around 90 lakh of the 1.32 crore farmers across the state. However, of around 59 lakh applications received by the government 23 lakh were sent for verification process and rejected without giving valid reasons,” Sawant said.

“The information made available by the government shows that the money disbursed to the farmers has come down by a whooping Rs 5000 crore over past couple of months,” he added.

The government had much touted the one time settlement scheme (OTS) for farm loans. But, that scheme too has failed as only about 7-8 per cent farmers have availed the benefit of the scheme. On the other hand the government is trying to exaggerate the number of beneficiaries of the loan waiver scheme by adding beneficiaries of other schemes like the OTS, Sawant said.

“The government is completely insensitive towards the farmers woes and that is reflected in the extravagant event organized by the party,” he said.