BJP cries ''betrayal'' over farm loan waiver; stages protests

Accusing the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra of "betraying" farmers over the

issue of giving loan waiver, the opposition BJP staged protests in parts of the state on Tuesday.

A party delegation headed by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis also approached Governor Bhagat

Singh Koshyari over the issue and sought his intervention to ensure peasants get blanket loan waiver.

The BJP's protest outside tehsil offices in the state came a day after the Sena-NCP-Congress government released the

first list of 15,358 beneficiaries of the farm loan waiver scheme announced late last year.

Fadnavis said the delegation submitted a total of 60,000 letters written by farmers to the Governor from

Kolhapur district over several of their demands. Some of these farmers wrote letter using their own

blood, said the former BJP chief minister, who had announced a mega loan waiver during his tenure.

During the meeting with Koshyari, the BJP delegation also objected to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government

introducing and passing a bill that reverses an earlier decision under which people directly elected the village

sarpanch (headman). Stressing the bill was not in accordance with the law,

Fadnavis said the delegation requested the Governor to "not give assent to anything that is not in line with the law".

Ahead of the delegation's meeting with the Governor, Fadnavis, who headed the BJP's protest at Azad Maidan in south

Mumbai, said the BJP's statewide stir will continue till cultivators get justice.

"The government has been betraying farmers since it was formed...The promise of giving loan waiver to farmers not

kept...We apprised the Governor on the issue and sought his intervention in ensuring complete loan waiver by the

government," Fadnavis said after meeting Koshyari. During the protest at Azad Maidan, Fadnavis said there

are 1.45 crore farmers in the state, while the government has released list of only 15,000 cultivators (who will be eligible

for grant of loan waiver). "We are trying to raise the issues concerning farmers

before the government. Our struggle against the government will continue till the farmers get justice inside the House

(state legislature) and outside it as well," he said. Seeking to underscore the difference between the

previous BJP-led government and the MVA regime, Fadnavis said his dispensation announced loan waiver in June 2017 even

though the issue was not part of his party's manifesto. On the other hand, the MVA government of the Sena, the

NCP and the Congress is not giving farm loan waiver, despite the promise being part of the 'common minimum programme'

chalked out by the three parties last year, he alleged. Fadnavis alleged the MVA government is not the one

elected by the people of Maharashtra, but one formed by "managing" numbers post-polls.

"This is not the government the people willed for," he added.

Fadnavis further alleged that farmers hit by unseasonal rains last year have still not received due

assistance from the government. Without naming any party, he sought to know what

happened to the demand of giving Rs 25,000 per hectare (of crop loss) to farmers hit by untimely rains.

The NCP and the Congress made such a demand last year when they were in opposition.

The BJP claimed that over 2.5 lakh party men, farmers and women took part in the protests organised at 355 locations

in the state. The Maharashtra Assembly was on Tuesday adjourned for

the day after pandemonium over the farm loan waiver issue. The state government on Monday released the first list

of 15,358 beneficiaries of the 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 with funds.

"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 said the scheme's implementation has been

done within 60 days of its announcement, and credited the state machinery for the speedy execution.

The scheme to write off debts of farmers whose crop loan outstanding is up to Rs two lakh till September 30, 2019,

was announced by the chief minister in December last year after he took charge of the coalition government.