CM’s stand gets him brownie points

Mumbai: Despite facing sharp criticism, the state is not budging on the issue of money being transferred directly to the farmers’ loan account. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is adamant about banks not being given total control of funds in proportion to the agricultural loans they have. This stance seems to be working politically for the CM.

Political observers believe that this has connected the chief minister directly to the farmers. “It may be taking time in implementation, but politically it is sending a helpful message about Mr Fadnavis. A CM clearing your debt directly would help BJP consolidate its strength in rural Maharashtra,” analyses senior journalist, Anant Dikshit.

From the very beginning, Mr Fadnavis had been raising objections against the role of banks, citing the 2008 loan waiver scheme. He had made his stance on house floor during the assembly’s budget session this year.  “We have seen what happened in 2008. People know who benefited from that scheme in reality. Farmers will not be cheated this time,” he had said.

The mess regarding the actual number of farmers eligible for the scheme took place after the state level banking committee (SLBC) submitted its data to the cooperative department. According to cooperative minister Subhash Deshmukh, confusion over the actual number of eligible farmers as well as repetitive AADHAAR numbers against many farmers’ names was created due to this data. This has caused the state government to look incompetent. Mr Fadnavis strictly instructed SLBC to be more careful while waiving off loans.

Senior banker Vishwas Utagi said, “The government can’t blame banks. It has to pay actually the banks to clear loans of the farmers,” said Mr Utagi. Former finance minister Jayant Patil too had warned state government, saying, “Bypassing them would not send a good signal to the bureaucracy,” he had said.

But, to avoid incidents of corruption, Mr Fadnavis went ahead with transferring money directly to the farmers’ loan account.