Representative Image. Credits: Wikimedia Commons
Mumbai: The benefit of the loan scheme from the Maharashtra government will be exclusively for farmers without any other source of income.
According to a government resolution dated June 14, those getting income from other jobs, even if they own farms, will be out of the ambit of the scheme, under which Rs 10,000 initial crop loan assistance is provided to farmers.
“The Rs 10,000 initial loan assistance scheme is meant for farmers in distress who have agriculture as the only source of income. Hence, a detailed list is prepared in the GR that will filter out those who have other sources of income,” Maharashtra state cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh told PTI today.
“For the first time such a meticulously drafted resolution is prepared to weed out the undue beneficiaries. Many teachers, professors, shop owners and service providers from rural and semi-urban areas are not solely dependent on agriculture, though they avail crop loan for cultivation,” he said.
The resolution states that all the teaching and non-teaching staff in the local body-run and government-aided schools in the state will be disqualified from the scheme. Similarly, those registered under the Maharashtra Shops and Establishment Act (1948) will also be omitted from the list of beneficiaries.
“The Rs 10,000 assistance is only for the farmers who are in distress. To avoid any diversion of money from agriculture, the state has come up with this GR and the list of those who qualify and those who do not qualify as farmers,” a senior official from the cooperation department said.
“Some senior principal secretary-level officials from cooperation, agriculture, finance and revenue departments sat and brain-stormed to come up with the resolution that will benefit only the farmers,” the official said.
The government resolution also mentions that all the sitting elected representatives from panchayat level to the central government as well as those who were previously on such posts, are omitted from the initial loan assistance scheme.
“More than 80% of the teaching and non-teaching staff from rural areas have agricultural land. If most of them were availing crop loan then they are now going to be excluded from the list of beneficiaries,” the official said.