Revisit farm loan waiver plan, remove all conditions: NCP (SP) MLA in Maharashtra Assembly

Mumbai, Jul 9 (PTI) Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (SP)'s MLA Rohit Pawar on Thursday slammed the Maharashtra government's recently announced farm loan waiver, alleging it was "a recovery scheme and not a loan waiver" and will not cover nearly 70 per cent of the cultivators. Initiating discussion on the Opposition-sponsored 'Last Week Motion' in the Assembly, Pawar claimed stringent conditions attached to the loan waiver scheme, cleared by the state cabinet in early June, would deprive nearly 70 per cent of the farmers of its benefits. A 'Last Week Motion' is an Opposition-sponsored debate convened towards the end of a legislative session. Welcoming the decision to name the scheme after Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar, the legendary 18th-century ruler of Malwa who was born in present-day Maharashtra, he insisted the BJP-led government undermined its intent by imposing restrictive eligibility criteria. Pawar objected to the condition limiting farmers who had already availed the 2019 Mahatma Jyotiba Phule loan waiver to a maximum benefit of Rs 50,000 under the new scheme. The MLA, who sat on a fast last month to press for removal of "stringent" conditions from the debt relief package, demanded that the restriction be withdrawn and all eligible farmers be granted a loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh without conditions. He criticised the One-Time Settlement (OTS) provision of the package, under which farmers would have to first clear outstanding dues above Rs 50,000 before becoming eligible for the scheme, calling it "impractical" at a time when tillers were reeling under crop losses, falling commodity prices and rising input costs. Claiming that repeated droughts, unseasonal rains and poor prices for soybean, cotton and onions had pushed cultivators deeper into debt, Pawar contended the government was penalising farmers for circumstances beyond their control. Referring to a cabinet note related to the scheme, he alleged that the eligibility conditions had been deliberately framed to reduce the government's financial burden. While the government announced a Rs 35,585-crore package, the actual expenditure could be limited to Rs 12,000 crore-Rs 13,000 crore because of the conditions, resulting in injustice to nearly 36 lakh farmers, claimed the MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed in Ahilyanagar. Pawar objected to a committee report describing repeated farm loan waivers as a "moral hazard", saying the term insulted farmers who had suffered losses due to natural calamities and low agricultural returns. The legislator urged the government to remove all conditions and implement a blanket loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh. He urged the government to revisit the loan waiver scheme, restore crop insurance safeguards, address issues relating to electricity supply, fertiliser prices and onion growers, and ensure farmers received meaningful relief instead of what he described as a "loan recovery mechanism". The Opposition MLA demanded restoration of four crop insurance "triggers", alleging that their removal had deprived farmers of thousands of crores in compensation despite massive crop losses caused by excessive rainfall in 2025. He criticised new crop insurance application conditions, claiming declarations sought from farmers regarding crop loans and Kisan Credit Cards could result in genuine beneficiaries being denied insurance claims. The Maharashtra government has said its Rs 36,585-crore debt relief scheme, which envisages waiver of crop loans of up to Rs 2 lakh for eligible farmers, will benefit around 56 lakh cultivators. Turning to law and order, Pawar cited NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) data to claim that Maharashtra ranked among the leading states in crimes against women and urged the government to strengthen investigations and fast-track courts dealing with sexual offences. He sought an audit of pending cases, saying many victims continued to wait years for justice. PTI MR RSY