Over 1,000 farmers have killed themselves in the Marathwada region alone in the state.
Farmers' Rights activist Kishore Tiwari has alleged fraud in distribution of funds to farmers by nationalized and cooperative banks in Maharashtra and has written to the Prime Minister seeking a CBI investigation.
In a letter to PM Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Mr Kishore has alleged that the claims of nationalised and cooperative to have achieved lending targets for the agriculture sector were not true and that the scam was to the tunes of hundreds of crores.
Mr Tiwari was recently appointed by the Maharashtra government to head an agricultural mission. Over 1,000 farmers have killed themselves in the Marathwada region alone in the state.
"We are shocked to understand as to how banks are playing frauds, fraudulent acts & irregularities to claim achievement of targets & sub targets for agro sector and farmers, and how it literally failed to serve the purpose, thereby causing great hardships, distress & exploitation of farmers ultimately forcing them to commit suicides," Mr Tiwari said in the letter.
Mr Tiwari has demanded a CBI probe into short term crop loans and other credits by banks which he claims are not reaching the farmers.
"In this extreme background, the frauds and irregularities played by Public Sector Nationalized Banks, Domestic Commercial Banks/ Foreign Banks need to be investigated and entire schemes of such targeted and sub targeted agro sector credits need to be redrawn to make available long term loans to farmers ranging from 5 to 7 years, with the scale of finance & credits proportionate to market rates of Farms assets," Mr Tiwari added in the letter.
Mr Tiwari has said that the distress in the farming community in the state can be addressed by investigating into the credit infrastructure. Speaking to NDTV, he said, "This is the major step we will be taking, we will be going into the detail to gather substantial proofs to support our allegations."
The Congress, which has been attacking the BJP-led Maharashtra government over farmers' suicides are confident that there were no frauds in granting credits to farmers during their rule and have said that they have no objection if the government orders an inquiry into the matter.