By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: Having failed to redress distress and despair prevailing in the suicide prone six districts of west Vidarbha region by granting Rs. 840 crore as interest waiver now Maharashtra Government is working another formula to give short loan waiver to small marginal farmers land holding up to two hectors or so.
“This will be a mockery of discussed loan waiver demand of debt-trapped distressed cotton growing farmers as this loan waiver will not cover more than 60,000 farmers out of 12.80 lakhs,” said Nagpur-based Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, (VJAS), president Kishor Tiwari in a Press release.
The Press release pointed out that last week principal secretary (rehabilitation) Ramesh Kumar has submitted the proposal of loan waiver to PMO in New Delhi. The proposal said the farmers who have taken fresh crop loan for this khariff season must only be considered and not the farmers who are debt-trapped. In fact loan waiver is not the only solution but it is necessary to start NFSM (National Food Security Mission) and special outlay of RKVY (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana) along with a comprehensive policy for land rights to landless, marginal farmers and tribals cultivating barren land of Vidarbha. The demand to allocate dedicated funds on the lines of AIBP for farm ponds, community tanks and give incentives to farmers / villages who / which harness water but nobody in the administration is serious over the Vidarbha agrarian crisis, Tiwari lamented. ([email protected])