Fadnavis announces agitation against new loan waiver scheme

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday announced that the BJP would hold an agitation over the farm loan waiver scheme announced by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The loan waiver was "cheating of farmers", he said.

The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government earlier in the day announced loan waiver of upto Rs 2 lakh for farmers in the state with cut-off date of September 30. Speaking to reporters outside the state legislature here, Fadnavis said, "We are going to hold a statewide agitation against this cheating of farmers.

"The loan waiver announced by us (BJP-led government) in 2017 has already benefited farmers. We had waived loans upto Rs 1.50 lakh. Between 2017 and 2019, there will be very few farmers with outstanding loans. "The real needy farmer are the ones who lost their crops due to untimely rain in October," he said..