Mumbai: Even four months after the loan waiver scheme was announced, the State government is to yet give a time frame during which the farmers will get the benefits.
Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said in Osmanabad district on Thursday that the implementation will take 15 more days. “The government is not responsible for the delay. The work is going in the right direction. The process will take 15 more days.”
Mr. Patil’s statement comes after Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh claimed last week that the benefits will start reaching the farmers by November-end.
Mr. Deshmukh had said that a total of 55,000 farmers had been covered under the scheme. A few days later, the number came down to 5,000.
The Opposition slammed the government for its ‘casual’ attitude. “We have been saying from the beginning that the government is not serious about the loan waiver, and instead it is playing a cruel joke on farmers. This is a khotarda (liar) government,” said Sunil Tatkare, Nationalist Congress Party’s Maharashtra unit chief.
Mr. Tatkare said that the party’s ‘halla bol’ march from December 1 to 10, is to protest the government’s policies which have caused harms to the farmers. “The government’s online initiative to transfer money has failed due to irregularities of officers.”
