Loan waiver scheme surprise: Mumbai too have farmers!

In what is perhaps one of the biggest surprises vis-a-vis the ambitious loan waiver scheme, the Maharashtra government has listed 811 farmers as beneficiaries for Mumbai of the total 36,10,216 farmers eligible in the state. 

These 811 farmers from Mumbai - 694 farmers from Mumbai City district and another 119 farmers from Mumbai Suburban district would receive 1.50 lakh under the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana, as the loan-waiver scheme has been named.

Under the loan waiver 34, 022 crore is set to be disbursed by the government - which would benefit 89 lakh farmers and nearly 40 lakh farmers would be totally debt-free. The farmers from Mumbai caught the attention when Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis put out a tweet listing the number of beneficiaries in each of the districts.  "We would check on each and every case and then funds would be disbursed," an official of Chief Minister's Office said.

Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh said that it may be the case that they would have taken loans from banks in Mumbai even though they may agriculture fields in other districts. "We would check and disburse the loans," he said, adding that of there has been anything wrong necessary action and remedial measures would be taken.

As per the details released by Chief Minister, Buldhana has the highest chunk of beneficiaries with 2,49,818 farmers while Yavatmal, which had seen the maximum number of suicides,  ranks second at 2,42,471, followed by Beed's 2,08,480 and Ahmednagar's 2,00,869.

The other districts with a major share of beneficiaries under the scheme are Jalna - 1,96,463, Jalgaon - 1,94,320, Pune - 1,83,209, Amravati - 1,72,760, Parbhani - 1,63,760, Nanded - 1,56,849, Aurangabad - Aurangabad - 1,48,322, Nashik - 1,36,569, Akola - 1,11,625 and Solapur - 1,08,533. The remaining 17 districts fall in the below 1,00,000 beneficiaries list drawn up for the state -  of which the Konkan region has the least number of beneficiaries - Sindhudurg (24,447), Thane (23,505), Raigad (10,809), Palghar (918).

However, the list attracted attention on the social media. "If there are 811 farmers in Mumbai, the list of the farmers should be made public," said veteran activist and RTI campaigner Anil Galgali.