Opposition chides govt on loan dispersal

Mumbai: On a day when this newspaper raised the issue, the opposition and the Shiv Sena slammed the government for poor disbursement of crop loans to farmers across the state during the kharif season. The Leader of the Opposition in the state Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and the Leader of the Opposition in the state Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde, both alleged that the state government had failed in terms of proper disbursement of crop loans.

Mr Vikhe-Patil said, “Farmers have never been a priority for the state government. That is why the loan waiver scheme also failed. Banks have lost faith in the state government, so they are not responding to the government. The arrest of Maharashtra Bank chairman Ravindra Marathe may be linked with the crop loan and loan waiver issue.”

Mr Munde said, “Who is responsible for it? The government should not only blame the banks and complain to the Union government. What action is it taking against nationalised banks and persons from the state government. The government always harasses cooperative banks but they are the ones helping farmers and not nationalised banks.”

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, “The government had declared loan waiver but still, lakhs of farmers have not received the benefit. Nationalised banks are not obeying the state’s orders. Lakhs of farmers are suffering. The CM should raise this issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

Kishor Tiwari, president of the Vasantrao Naik Farmers Mission, too, said, “If the CM does not raise the issue with the PM and compel banks to issue crop loans, farmers will start agitations as the issue is becoming very serious. Banks have taken loan waiver money from the government and are now not ready to give new loans to farmers. So, they are repeating the things.”

Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s PRO Harshal Pradhan said, “The government should take immediate steps for disbursement of loans to farmers. It had announced the loan waiver scheme but the benefits have not reached the farmers. The crop loan distribution figures clearly show that farmers are not getting loans from banks.”

Only 13.52 lakh farmers across the state have availed crop loans till June 15, which is only 21 per cent of the target.