4 lakh Vibarbha farmers found ineligible for crop loan waiver | Nagpur News
Nagpur: More than four lakh farmers from Vidarbha are ineligible for the crop loan waiver scheme, either due to income from other sources for which they paid tax or a salary or pension of more than Rs25,000 a month.The state govt has also set certain rejection criteria in the waiver scheme which keeps the financially better off away. Even MLAs, MPs and members of local bodies, both present and former, have been excluded. The objective is to ensure that only deserving farmers get the benefit, said sources.The number of such borrowers in the region comes to 4.11 lakh or 74% of eligible farmers in the first list.Banks had sent a list of more than 9.56 lakh defaulting farmers from Vidarbha to the state govt which finalised the names after a scrutiny. The state govt would waive loans of 5.5 lakh borrowers included in the first list. A part of the loan would be forgone by the banks too. A second list is expected after a similar elimination, said sources.From Nagpur division, comprising Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts, banks sent a list of 2.7 lakh farmers. Out of these, 1.22 have been rejected. In Amravati division, comprising Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Buldhana and Washim districts, 2.88 lakh out of 6.8 lakh names have been found ineligible.The state govt has set up a foolproof mechanism to arrive at the list. Data is also sourced from the income tax department. This helped in weeding out a large number of farmers. Moreover, Aadhaar linking and details from the AgriStack portal are also providing details, said a source.Manish Jhadav, an activist from Yavatmal who also took part in the agitation seeking waiver, said norms ensure that only those who solely depend on farming as a livelihood get the benefit.
