Mumbai, Oct 31 (IANS) Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday asked the BJP-led Mahayuti government to immediately waive off the farmers’ loans without making them “suffer” further.

In a letter addressed to the government, he asked whether farmers need to pay the current instalments if the loan was being waived.

Stating that farmers are under “mountains of loans” and badly affected by natural disasters, he said, “The government’s insensitive and uncaring administration has once again tried to buy time by giving the farmers who are in such a terrible and sultanic crisis a pickle.”

“When the plight of farmers is visible, what kind of study will the committee conduct and submit a report? If there is really going to be a loan waiver in June next year, should the farmers pay the current loan instalments?” asked Thackeray.

He further asked, “If these instalments are going to be waived in the June loan waiver next year, why should the farmers pay them? Will farmers get loans for Rabi without repaying their loans? If new loans are going to be available, will they also be waived? Who will answer these questions?”

“Before providing other assistance, farmers are asking for soil to restore the eroded land. But the government is not ready to do anything about it. The farmer, who feeds the world, is in dire straits today. The government announced compensation worth thousands of crores, but the question is how much money has been deposited in the farmers’ accounts. It has been raining in Maharashtra for six months, and it has further increased the farmers’ distress. The farmers are completely devastated. What could be a more ‘right time’ than this to provide a loan waiver? Yet the government’s delay in saying that it will provide a loan waiver when the right time comes is a cruel joke to the farmers,” claimed Thackeray.

Pointing out that news of farmer suicides was constantly coming from Marathwada, Vidarbha and North Maharashtra, he said, “Don’t these increasing suicide figures reach the government’s ears? By dillydallying over debt relief, this government is pushing farmers to the brink of death. Will the government take responsibility for the farmer suicides that will occur by June? The government is only playing with the farmers. In short, the current plight of farmers will remain the same, as the government has said farm loans waiver will be provided before June next year.”

Thackeray’s move to write a letter to the government comes a day after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, after his meeting with the former minister and Prahar Sanghatana chief Bachchu Kadu, announced on Thursday night that the government will decide on farm loan waiver before June 2026.

CM Fadnavis’ announcement comes after Kadu, supported by various farmers’ organisations, staged a protest in Nagpur demanding farm loan waiver.

The government on Thursday constituted a nine-member committee, headed by retired bureaucrat and CEO of Maharashtra Institution for Transformation, Pravin Pardeshi, to recommend short and long-term suggestions to make farmers permanently debt-free.

–IANS

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