Mumbai: Amid protests, including from political circles, CM Devendra Fadnavis announced on Friday that the state govt is broadening some of the criteria of the latest farm loan waiver scheme, raising the cap from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh for those who had benefited from the 2019 scheme.The relaxation will allow thousands of farmers to be covered by the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar farmers’ loan waiver scheme.Fadnavis said in the assembly that the condition requiring loan repayment in 2026-27 under the incentive component is also being done away with, saying those who repaid their loans in two of the previous three years will now be eligible.Govt had declared the latest farm loan waiver on June 2, amounting to Rs 36,585 crore. It was expected to benefit 55.7 lakh farmers, but it also drew criticism over keeping thousands of farmers out with stringent conditions. The scheme covers short-term crop loans taken between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2025 and has three components: debt waiver, one-time settlement and incentive benefits for those who have regularly serviced their loans. The waiver was among the promises on Mahayuti’s manifesto before the 2024 assembly polls.MLAs from treasury and opposition benches had sought removal of the Rs 50,000 cap. “In the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar farmers’ loan waiver scheme [of 2026], we were providing waivers of up to Rs 2 lakh to those who have outstanding debts of more than Rs 2 lakh… Some MLAs met me and asked for removal of the Rs 50,000 cap for previous beneficiaries. I told them that if this condition were removed, govt will incur expenses of Rs 3,000-4000 crores. We had kept this condition to bring in discipline,” Fadnavis said.The opposition credited its protests for the relaxations. NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar, who had led a three-day hunger strike last month demanding the withdrawal of “stringent conditions” called it a “success of our struggle”. “If a united struggle is waged on the streets, success is certain without fail—this is yet another vivid example of that! Jai Kisan! Even though govt had announced the loan waiver two months ago, the announcement made today to remove the restrictive conditions and terms from it has truly brought about the loan waiver for us,” he said in a post on X.In the assembly, CM Fadnavis hit back at MNS chief Raj Thackeray for his criticism over the 18-hour disruption of the Mumbai-Pune ‘missing link’ following a landslide. Mimicking Fadnavis, Thackeray had on Thursday questioned why raising concerns over the quality of infrastructure projects was being portrayed as an insult to Maharashtra and why seeking accountability was being labelled as politics.“He (Thackeray) is my friend. Since he is a friend, we are not in any danger from him in politics. We are happy that he is in politics. However, if he had gone into the field of mimicry, then there would have been no market for any standup comedian,” Fadnavis said. “Many people are angry after my speech in the assembly… There was that Rs 7,000 crore was washed away even though not a single crux was broken. So is this an insult to me? This is an insult to Maharashtra itself. Spreading fake news or spreading fake news is an insult to Maharashtra…”
