Maharashtra: Imprisoned farmers also got benefits of loan waiver scheme
What's the story
The Maharashtra Government's mega loan waiver scheme has benefited even imprisoned farmers, said an official.
"Eighty-eight prisoners, who are farmers by profession and lodged in Nagpur and Nashik central jails, were encouraged to apply for loan waiver under the scheme announced in June last year by the government. Of these, 56 have received its benefits," former Nagpur Collector Sachin Kurve said.
Here's more.
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Collector's office provided all necessary guidance to farmers
Kurve, currently Mumbai's suburban district collector, said the applications of other farmer-prisoners, apart from the 88, were rejected as they provided insufficient documents or their names didn't match with that on their Aadhaar cards.
He said the collector's office provided necessary guidance and support to farmers, including facilities for them like making their meetings with relatives easier and arranging for video-conferencing for court appearances.
Arrests
Farmers were booked for cheating, rioting, theft
Kurve said the initiative was taken on CM Devendra Fadnavis's instructions, who said no eligible farmer should be left out of the scheme.
A Home Department official said of the 88 jailed farmers, a few have been convicted by courts, while others are under-trials.
Most of the convicts were booked cheating, rioting, and theft, the official said declining to disclose nature of other crimes.
Help
Rejected farmers should get help to avail benefits: Farm activist
Farm activist Kishor Tiwari said prisoner cultivators, whose claims have been rejected, should be provided help so that they, too, benefit from the scheme.
The state cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval to extend the loan waiver scheme to farmers who have defaulted on loans since 2001. The previous cut-off was 2009.
Reportedly, Rs. 15,700cr has been disbursed to over 35L farmers till now.
Information
46.52L farmers have been found eligible for loan waiver scheme
A total of 46.52L farmers have been found to be eligible for benefits. Of these, 30.38L have applied for full loan waiver, while the rest have sought relief under the incentive component (for repaying loans on time) of the Rs. 34,000cr scheme.