The Maharashtra government has appointed a sub-committee to study and recommend an appropriate scheme for farmers having overdue of short-term crop loan/restructured crop a loan above ₹2 lakh and for those who have repaid their crop loan on time.

The Government Resolution (GR) issued on Wednesday states that the sub-committee will conduct a study to provide relief to farmers who have regularly paid loans. The committee will also study a way out to provide relief to farmers who have restructured crop loan.

State Finance Minister Ajit Pawar will head the seven-member committee comprising five ministers and principal secretary (State Cooperatives).

In December, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a crop loan waiver with an upper ceiling of ₹2 lakh. However, later the GR was issued stating that loans up to ₹2 lakh taken between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2019 and which have not been repaid till September 30, 2019 will be eligible for the waiver. Farmers, whose crop loan and restructured loan is more than ₹2 lakh will not be eligible for any benefit under the scheme, it added.

Farmer organisations had alleged that the loan waiver scheme was nothing but a “betrayal” of the farming community as the majority of the farmers were left out of the scheme as they had loan arrears of more than ₹2 lakh.

The appointment of the sub-committee comes after the Chief Minister had promised that the State government was committed to providing relief to maximum number of farmers.

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