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The inhuman treatment is given to the farmers in the name of loan write-offs

Noida, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaWritten By: Puniti PandeyUpdated: Oct 18, 2017, 02:04 PM IST
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File photo. Photograph:(Zee News Network)

The Maharashtra government is all set to roll out its loan waiver scheme on Wednesday. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will be providing loan waivers to the first set of farmers on October 18. The scheme was announced in June by the state government after days of protest by farmers. The state was hard hit by severe drought since 2012, adversely impacting the cultivators.

The government, in order to curb manual manipulations, has devised an online application process. The money will be transferred to their bank accounts after strict regulation.
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Claiming it to be “biggest in history” the state government had allotted Rs 34,022 crore for the scheme. However, recent reports say that the chief minister is not sure about the real estimate diverted for the scheme as several amendments were introduced after its announcement.

The farmers will be getting the loan amount from the state government after five months of wait.The government, in order to curb manual manipulations, has devised an online application process. The money will be transferred to their bank accounts after strict regulation.

A similar farm loan waiver scheme was carried out by the Uttar Pradesh government recently. As part of his election promise to waive off farmers’ loan, the Uttar Pradesh government led by chief minister Yogi Adityanath had announced “Krishi Rin Mochan Yojana” in April.The state government had diverted Rs 36000 crores for the same.

The scheme aimed at waiving crop loan of small and marginal farmers up to Rs 100,000. The election promise had raised big hopes among the farmers of Uttar Pradesh and was launched in September. However, the implementation of the scheme has left many farmers shocked and infuriated. They feel cheated after receiving amounts as low as Rs 10, 12 or even 1 paisa, 10 paisa, 12 paisa.

Shambhi Nath, a farmer in Barabanki (UP) spent Rs 218 only to receive a loan waiver of Rs 12. In an interview to a Hindi daily, Adityanath said, “Farmers of Uttar Pradesh are so self-reliant that they paid the loan all by themselves”.

Shambhu Nath had taken a loan of Rs 28,812. Out of which he returned Rs 28, 800 by selling his bull. Therefore he received only the outstanding amount which figured out to Rs 12. A report stated that over 4,814 farmers got loan waivers amounting between Rs 1- 100. About 17,260 farmers received loan amounting Rs 1000 or less than it.

The ever-increasing farmers’ plight cannot be tackled just by introducing loan waivers scheme.
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Clearing off the farmers’ outstanding loan amounting to 1 Rs, 10 Rs or few paisa will certainly not benefit any of these farmers. However, it will add up to the figures of beneficiaries from the Yogi government’s flagship mission of waiving off farmer’s loan.

The ever-increasing farmers’ plight cannot be tackled just by introducing loan waivers scheme. For a country which suffers from floods and droughts every year, writing off the loan amount is not the ultimate solution. 

A well-organised plan is required to be implemented by the collective efforts of Central and State government to improve the root cause of the plight.