After waiving individual farm loan arrears, the BJP-led Maharashtra government has now readied a plan to absorb group loans availed by farmers for farm infrastructure purposes.
On Monday, state Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, who is also BJP’s Maharashtra president, confirmed the move. “Several farmers’ groups across the state have taken group loans for development of (farm) water supply schemes. There is a plan to absorb arrears of such loans,” said Patil.
The Congress government in Rajasthan had earlier included such group loans in its loan waiver scheme. Besides this, the plan is also to absorb long and medium term loans availed by marginal farmers for laying of pipelines, purchase of tractors and other farm-related works from the state’s land development bank (LDB) over the years.