MUMBAI: According to BJP sources, the Maharashtra government may announce a complete crop loan waiver just ahead of the sowing season if it decides to go in for a mid-term poll. However, a Shiv Sena minister said the government is likely to take a mid-way approach after the party assures full support to the government.
The crop loan waiver issue has not allowed the Assembly to function for two weeks. The opposition NCP and Congress will take out a Sangharsh Yatra across the state to press for loan waiver. Shiv Sena is also up in arms against the government. Though CM Devendra Fadnavis and the BJP have said that they are not against loan waiver, the government has not committed to it.
On Friday, Fadnavis said in the Assembly that his government, which is struggling to maintain fiscal discipline amidst rising revenue deficit, will immediately need `30,500 crore for crop loan waiver. Provisioning for the waiver will cause financial disruption and the government will not have enough funds for capital expenditure, he added.
After meeting Union Minister of Finance and Union Agriculture Ministerlast week, Fadnavis had stated in the Assembly that 1.36 crore farmers in the state have taken loan worth `1.14 lakh crore. Out of these, 31 lakh farmers have debts of over `31,057 crore.
“Farmers have been pushed out of the institutional credit system. While the government wants to bring them back into it, measures should be such that it won’t affect morals of over 1 crore farmers who have been repaying their loans. This is a challenge and we shall need some time to address it,” Fadnavis said.
BJP sources said the government wants to end Shiv Sena’s trouble permanently.
“Two of our ministers will meet Uddhav Thackeray next week. If they (Shiv Sena) don’t behave even after that, we may go in for mid-term polls. We can win 230 of 288 seats in the state,” a BJP minister said.
A Shiv Sena minister said there’ll be mid-way out. RBI is learnt to have come forward with a proposal for loan waiver, under which 40 per cent of farmer’s loans will be written off and the rest will be waived off jointly by Centre and the state.