Loan waiver benefited over 13,000 farmers in division.

Times of India: Nagpur: Monday, April 25 2016.

Over 13,000 farmers from Nagpur division have been benefited under Maharashtra government's scheme to waive off moneylenders' loans to farmers. The division comprises Wardha, Gondia, Bhandara,Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Nagpur where 3,061 villages were identified by the government for implementing the scheme.

The announcement in this regard was made by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis while replying to a debate over drought in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions during winter session in city in December 2014. Revenue minister Eknath Khadse made similar announcement in the council declaring that farmers would be given 100% loan waiver if they had availed loan from licensed moneylenders. The debate in both house was initiated by the opposition parties after a large number of farmers committed suicides due to mounting debts, and a majority of them had availed loans from the moneylenders.

As per reply by office of divisional joint registrar's for cooperative Societies in Nagpur to RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar, 27,541 farmers were identified in the division as eligible under the scheme. These were finalized by district level scrutiny committee. This panel consisted of collector, police superintendent, divisional registrar and auditor of the respective districts. They had taken loans from 743 moneylenders and their total outstanding was Rs2,798.28 crore.

The public information officer (PIO) at joint registrar's office informed that so far, the government had released about Rs 19 crore towards the scheme benefiting 13,233 farmers who had secured loans from 571 licensed moneylenders. The government freed the properties and articles of 14,647 farmers who had mortgaged them to the moneylenders. It also distributed 'Debt Relief Certificates' to 12,116 farmers so far.

The waiver was announced as a part of a relief package for farmers and the moneylenders were asked to provide a list of borrowers. Interestingly, the moneylenders knocked the doors of Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court challenging the waiver saying they had been granted insufficient time to provide details.

According to PIO, after getting approval from the scrutiny committee, the moneylenders were told to return the mortgaged property of the farmer. The debt amount was transferred to the moneylenders' account through NEFT/RTGS. Later, the certificate of actual amount was handed over to the farmer by the committee. In case any dispute over the debt amount, the farmers have liberty to move court with further claims under Section 36 of Maharashtra Moneylending Act, 2014.