Mumbai: In the budget presented on Friday, the Maharashtra government showed generosity to the farmers. State Finance Minister Ajit Pawar has made many announcements regarding agriculture in this. An important announcement in this is that Ajit Pawar has made a big announcement to waive off the loans of 34 thousand 788 farmers of Bhuvikas Banks of Rs one crore.
The government says that 20 lakh farmers will benefit from this. Also requesting the Prime Minister to amend the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Ajit Pawar said that other options would be considered to compensate the farmers for crop loss. A turmeric research center will be set up in Vasmat, for which a provision of Rs 100 crore has been made. Special provisions have been made for women farmers.
Waiving off dues: Ajit Pawar
The Finance Minister also said that the land and buildings of Land Development Banks will be used for government schemes from now on. Various district land development banks in the state have stopped issuing new loans since 1998. The bank’s outstanding has increased to Rs 964 crore. Ajit Pawar, while presenting the state budget, announced that he was waiving the dues. It is worth noting that many schemes have already been launched by the Land Development Banks to recover billions of rupees due to farmers. Due to non-recovery of dues, these banks were gradually closed in almost every district. Since 2004, it has been decided to charge 6 per cent interest on the outstanding amount, whereas earlier this rate was 21 per cent. About ten years ago, in 2013, several land development banks in the state were closed.
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The first committee was formed in 2008
Earlier in 2008, a committee headed by Vaidyanath was appointed to revive the bank, which played a key role in financing farmers. Even the recommendations of this committee did not save the lives of these banks. During the Devendra Fadnavis government, a ministerial-level sub-committee was appointed under the chairmanship of the then Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar to revive the Land Development Bank in the state. That committee also made some important recommendations. According to this, the farmers whose dues were due, they were told to get interest waiver after paying the principal amount. The state government decided to close these land development banks in May 2015 due to non-recovery of arrears and huge increase in arrears despite several measures.
Congress-NCP had closed banks in six districts
Before 2014, when the Congress-NCP coalition government was in power in the state, land development banks were closed in six districts. The decision to close the land development banks in the remaining 21 districts was taken during the Fadnavis government. When the decision was taken to close these land development banks, the accumulated deficit was Rs 1692 crore, while the total outstanding was Rs 946 crore. Even after announcing the One Time Settlement (One Time Settlement Lump sum Repayment Scheme) several times, there was no response from the outstanding farmers.
- Land development banks stopped giving new loans from 1998
- Accumulated deficit Rs 1692 cr and total outstanding Rs 946 cr
- 10 years ago many land development banks have been closed
- Land development banks were running in 27 districts
- Committee and sub-committees were formed