Only 20,000 farmers are beneficiaries of loan waiver, Devendra Fadnavis said (File)
Chaos ensued inside the Maharashtra Assembly on the first day of budget session after the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government released the first list of beneficiaries of its farm loan waiver scheme.
The government didn't give the exact number of people who will be benefitted by the scheme. "This is just the first list. We are confident that we will finish the entire process by the end of April," said Congress leader Vijay Waddettiwar.
The opposition, however, demanded that the government write off farmers' debts completely. They said the government must provide financial assistance of Rs 25,000 per hectare as compensation for crop damage.
The BJP accused the government of playing with farmers' emotions.
Devendra Fadnavis, the Leader of Opposition, accused the government of not providing clarity on farmers' issues.
"There is no clarity on relief to farmers. Only 20,000 farmers are beneficiaries of loan waiver. There needs to be a discussion on this," the former chief minister said.
"There are nearly 34 lakh farmers (eligible for seeking loan waiver), but a list of potential beneficiaries of some 20,000 cultivators is put out today. We condemn this selectiveness of the state government," BJP state president Chandrakant Patil said.
The government says they have prepared a list of 35 lakh beneficiaries and the opposition, which never gave any relief to farmers when they were in power, should not worry about the farm loan, Mr Waddettiwar said.
Finance minister Ajit Pawar, meanwhile, tabled supplementary demands for 2019 -2020 and the statement on excess expenditure from 2014 to 2017. The government tabled Rs 15,000 crore supplementary demands in addition to nearly Rs 10,000 crore passed in the cabinet last week, taking the total to Rs 24,723 crore.