Mumbai, June 9 (IANS) The Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) on Tuesday accused the ruling dispensation in Maharashtra of deceiving poor, debt-ridden farmers in the same manner they previously “misled” the beneficiaries of the Ladki Bahin scheme.

The party said that while the government boasts loudly about its loan waiver scheme, millions of farmers continue to reel under severe financial distress.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) in an editorial in its mouthpiece, ‘Saamana’, said that the state has roughly 1.25 crore farmers. Out of these, the government asserts that it has waived loans worth up to Rs 2 lakh for 55 lakh farmers, amounting to a total relief package of approximately Rs 36,585 crore in crop loans. However, even if these figures are accepted at face value, a massive segment of the farming community remains excluded.

After deducting the 55 lakh beneficiaries and another six lakh farmers who fall under the income tax-paying bracket, a staggering 34 lakh farmers across the state are still suffocating under the crushing burden of debt, desperately awaiting relief. The ruling politicians, who are busy beating the drums of the 55 lakh loan waivers, have yet to answer for the plight of these remaining 34 lakh farmers, said the editorial.

According to the editorial, the core issue lies within the highly complex terms, conditions, and eligibility criteria intentionally embedded in the newly announced ‘Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkar Karzmukti Yojana’. More than 50 per cent of the state’s farmers will be systematically deprived of the benefits due to these deliberately engineered criteria.

The Thackeray camp said the government officials privately admit that enforcing these stringent disqualification criteria ensures a minimal financial burden on the state treasury. The ruling alliance leaders, who previously went all out celebrating the scheme, have chosen to stay completely silent on the mass exclusions.

The party has listed key structural loopholes rendering farmers ineligible. “The scheme strictly limits relief to crop loans and restructured loans availed only between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2025. Consequently, millions of farmers who took loans for allied agricultural activities or livestock are automatically disqualified.”

Further, farmers who previously benefited from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s ‘Mahatma Jotiba Phule Loan Waiver’ scheme in 2019 are barred from receiving full benefits under the new scheme. Instead, over 32 lakh such farmers are being handed a mere Rs 50,000 as an “encouragement allowance”.

“Experts argue that if it were truly an incentive, the amount should have been at least Rs one lakh. Furthermore, an additional two-year clause has been introduced here as well, ensuring that lakhs more fall into the ‘ineligible’ category,” claimed the Thackeray camp.

The party further stated in the editorial that the new policy completely fails to make special financial provisions or concessions for the widows of farmers or families of farmers who died by suicide. “This mirrors the government’s post-election strategy regarding welfare schemes. Before the Assembly elections, the ruling parties promised a blanket loan waiver to all farmers and assured women that the monthly assistance under the ‘Ladki Bahin’ scheme would be hiked from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,100,” it noted.

However, once power was secured, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena alleged that the promised Rs 2,100 hike was sidelined. Instead, by introducing mandatory ‘e-KYC’ verification hurdles, the government disqualified roughly 80 lakh women from the scheme in a single stroke.

“The exact same playbook is now being applied to the farming community. By tangling the Rs 2-lakh loan waiver in a web of bureaucratic red tape, the administration has successfully trapped lakhs of poor, debt-ridden farmers in the cycle of disqualification,” remarked the editorial.

–IANS

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