Loan waiver:Maha releases 1st list of over 15000 beneficiaries

(EDS: Combining a related story) Mumbai, Feb 24 (PTI)The Maharashtra government on

Mondayreleased the first list of 15,358 beneficiaries of the state farm loan waiver scheme.

On the occasion, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his deputy Ajit Pawar interacted via video conferencing with

some farmers whose bank accounts were credited withfunds. "Under the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule farm loan waiver

scheme, 34,83,908 farmer accounts have been identified," said a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

Thackeray saidimplementation of the scheme has been done within 60 days of its announcement and credited the state

machinery for the speedy execution. The scheme writing off the loans of farmers whose crop

loan outstanding is up to Rs 2 lakh upto September 30, 2019, was announced by the chief minister in December last year,

after taking charge of the coalition government. During the video conferencing interaction from the

Vidhan Bhawan, farmer VithalraoGarud from Parbhani told the CM that his debts have been cleared. He invited Thackeray for

the wedding of his daughter. Popat Mukte, a farmer from Ahmednagardistrict,

expressed satisfaction over the simple procedure to claim the loan waiver, which he said saved him the ordeal of doing

rounds of government offices. Mukte said the new crop loan waiver scheme stood out

from the earlier one launched by the then BJP government in the ease of procedure.

"Earlier, money was received after doing several rounds of government offices. Now, the work is swift," he

said. Earlier in the day as the budget session was about to

begin, BJP legislators staged a protest on the steps of the Vidhan Bhawan building demanding complete loan waiver for

farmers. They demanded that the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi

government write off farmers' debts completely and also provide them a financial assistance of Rs 25,000 per hectare

for crop damage.