Drought-Hit Farmers Seek Loan Waiver, Relief In Beed

Beed: Demanding immediate loan waivers for regular borrowers, Rajendra Amte of the Shetkari Hakka Morcha (Farmers’ Rights Movement) said farmers who had been misled by banks in the name of crop loan renewals should also be granted relief under the loan waiver scheme.

A meeting organised by the Farmers’ Rights Movement at Chakalamba in Georai tehsil on Thursday highlighted the mounting financial distress faced by farmers following severe crop losses due to drought.

Addressing the gathering, Amte said that despite the announcement of a loan waiver during the Nagpur agitation, several banks had merely renewed farmers’ existing crop loans instead of providing fresh financial assistance. In many cases, bank officials had reportedly obtained farmers’ thumb impressions on documents and repeatedly renewed their loans without extending any actual financial support.

He demanded that farmers who had been subjected to such practices should also be covered under the loan waiver scheme.

Farmers at the meeting expressed concern over the destruction of cotton, soybean and sugarcane crops due to drought. They questioned how they would repay their crop loans when the very crops for which the loans had been taken had been destroyed.

Amte also pointed out several discrepancies in the implementation of the loan waiver scheme. Although the scheme had been announced, the waiver amount had not been credited to the accounts of many eligible farmers included in the first list. In some cases, even where the amount had reportedly been deposited, the farmers’ loan accounts had not been closed. Several other beneficiaries whose names appeared on the list were facing delays as their accounts remained on hold.

Demanding immediate intervention, Amte urged the authorities to resolve these pending issues and ensure that eligible farmers, particularly those who had regularly repaid their loans, received the promised waiver without further delay.

Papu Khedkar, Kiran Kolse, Vishwanath Rathod, Ashok Kolse, Ashok Chavan, Madhu Gade, Baban Shinde, Girdhari Chopde, Bandu Gunjal, Mahadev Gunjal, Ashok Gaikwad, Namdev Gawde and Babanrao Vavhal were among those present at the meeting.