Uddhav Thackeray said that the amount announced as relief to farmers has not yet reached farmers. “Therefore, our demand is that the farmers should be completely debt-free.
File Photo (IANS)
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray who is back in Mumbai after touring flood-hit farming villages demanded on Saturday that the Fadnavis government must waive off loans of all farmers in Maharashtra, make them debt-free and also announce assistance of Rs 50,000 per hectare of crop lost to floods.
“We must have seen that after the Chief Minister went there (Ujani village in Latur district’s Ausa taluka on Wednesday, September 24), the farmer who asked him when and how much help he would give, Fadnavis said — come on, don’t do politics — and the police went after him. What kind of democracy is this? What kind of government is this? Why are you ruling?” Uddhav Thackeray told media persons here on Saturday, highlighting the incident.
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Uddhav Thackeray said that the amount announced as relief to farmers has not yet reached farmers. “Therefore, our demand is that the farmers should be completely debt-free.
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Today, I request the Chief Minister with folded hands on behalf of farmers that you should waive off the loans of farmers, immediately announce Rs 50,000 per hectare to the farmers as assistance and distribute it in a time-bound manner. Stop all loan debt collection notices being sent to the farmers by banks,” Uddhav Thackeray demanded.
Significantly, waiving off of farmers’ loans was a part of the BJP’s 2024 assembly election manifesto and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis had referred to it after he met PM Modi in Delhi on Friday, requesting financial assistance from the centre to cope with rains and floods in Maharashtra.
“The prime minister has asked the state government to send a proposal in this regard which will be considered constructively,” Fadnavis told media persons in Delhi, adding that the BJP manifesto mentioned a loan waiver to Maharashtra’s farmers and the aim of his government is to make it more effective.
The issue shot into the limelight after a few farmers requested Fadnavis to waive off farmers’ loans when he was in the midst of surveying crop damage due to floods in a village in Maharashtra a couple of days ago.
During his visit to Ujani village in Latur’s Ausa taluka, Fadnavis had inspected the flood damage and interacted with affected farmers on Wednesday (September 24), when some farmers demanded a loan waiver as well as declaration of a “wet drought”. When some other farmers shouted slogans, Fadnavis told them, “Come on, don’t do politics here.”
The opposition had seized this incident immediately and criticised Fadnavis heavily. “When farmers question the government, they are threatened with remarks like — where should we bring money from? Do we carry cash in our pockets? Don’t do politics etc. Farmers and citizens have come on the streets after losing everything.
If the government cannot understand this public outcry, then it is really very insensitive,” Maharashtra state Congress President Harshawardhan Sapkal said on Friday.
On Friday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and requested him to help Maharashtra’s farmers who faced losses due to heavy rains and floods, even as Congress sources indicated that Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit the flood-hit Marathwada region shortly.
Notably, only a day after the opposition’s criticism, Fadnavis met PM Modi on Friday, requesting substantial assistance to help farmers hit by heavy rains and floods, since it became a political issue raised by the opposition, which could potentially affect the result of the forthcoming local civic body elections in Maharashtra.
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