Amidst burgeoning demand for farm loan waiver from political parties and various organisations, the BJP-led government in Maharashtra proposes to waive Rs 8,000 crore of arrears payable by agricultural consumers to the state distribution utility (MahaVitaran) towards electricity use. These consumers owe a total of Rs 23,000 crore of which Rs 8,000 crore accounts for penal interest rate. The government's proposal hopes to benefit 4 million agricultural consumers.

Besides, the government in order to make farming sustainable especially by an assured electricity supply proposes to separate agriculture feeders and also develop solar power plants of 2 MW each on 1,000 sites with participation from the private sector across Maharashtra. The government will provide land and the evacuation will be done by MahaVitaran.

The move is to partly pacify the farmers who are reeling under deep financial crisis due to successive droughts, erratic rains and volatility in prices of farm produce. Opposition parties as well as BJP's allies namely Shiv Sena and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) have already hit the roads to press for farm loan waiver.

Shiv Sena has targeted Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking him to immediately announce loan waiver instead of pursuing infrastructure projects such as the Rs 90,000 crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train and the Rs 45,000 crore Mumbai-Nagpur expressway. Sena president Uddhav Thackeray declared that his party ministers will resign from the ministry and the party will provide an outside support if the government without further taking time announces loan waiver.

On the other hand, SSS founder Raju Shetti on Monday began his Pune-Mumbai march demanding loan waiver. He squarely blamed the Centre and state government for neglect towards farmers. The opposition Congress and NCP had completed Sangharsh Yatra across the state demanding farm loan waiver.

However, the government citing financial constraints has not taken any decision in this regard yet. It has reiterated that the waiver will be announced at the right time.

State energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule told DNA, "There are dues worth Rs 23,000 crore of which Rs 8,000 crore is penal interest rate. We plan to waive Rs 8,000 crore from the books of MahaVitaran. Farmers are honest, they have to pay their charges. However, they cannot pay due to financial problems, recovery is a problem.''

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