‘Loan waiver’ only on paper

In Aurangabad district, of Rs 171crore, only Rs 1.32crore has reached moneylenders

A year after announcing the waiver of Rs 171 crore of farmers’ loan taken from private money lenders, it has come to light that only Rs 1.32 crore has been distributed to the money lenders in one district — Aurangabad. Accusing the government of cheating farmers, the NCP has said the beneficiary moneylenders are affiliated with the BJP.

In order to bring some relief to farmers reeling under debt, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced to waive off loan taken from the moneylenders on December 14, in the last Winter session of the

legislature. A government resolution in this regard was moved on April 10, 2015 and June 30, 2015 was the last date of

implementation. The 19 districts from Aurangabad, Nagpur and Amravati regions were chosen in which 2.23 lakh farmers were supposed to benefit by the decision.

The government even made a budgetary provision of Rs 171 crore to be distributed under the loan waiver. However, the information sought from the government under RTI has shown that only `1.32 crore has been distributed to the moneylenders from Aurangabad district.

Out of the Rs 1.32 crore, the highest amount has been received by one moneylender Umesh Sancheti from Vaijapur of Rs 79 lakh.

While 12,058 farmers from Jalna, 2,555 from Nanded, 70,975 from Amaravati, 7,185 from Nagpur, 19,113 from Wardha and 12,716 from Gadchiroli did not benefit from the loan waiver decision. Slamming the government over the loan waiver, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said it is being biased towards the moneylenders. “The moneylenders from only Aurangabad district have got the loan waiver because they are affiliated with the BJP.,” Mr Malik said.

“One person has received about 50 per cent of the money distributed in Aurangabad district. But what about farmers from the other districts This is very suspicious and we are going to raise the issue in this winter session,” Mr Malik further added.