State government should give loans directly to farmers: Sathe

Nagpur, Dec 18 (UNI) Former Union Minister Vasant Sathe demanded a complete loan waiver to farmers in Vidarbha and said the state government should disburse fresh credit to them directly and not through banks or cooperative societies.

Speaking to UNI, Mr Sathe said that writing off the outstanding loans would alleviate the suffering of the farmers in Vidarbha. The state Government must disburse fresh loans to farmers through tehsildars, thereby getting rid of banks and cooperative credit societies from the channel of distribution, he added.

The state Government would, thus, save the interest charged by the intermediaries and ensure cheap credit to farmers, he explained.

''If the Government can waive the loans of sugarcane growers in western Maharashtra, then why can't it do the same for cotton cultivators in Vidarbha,'' Mr Sathe asked.

Farmers in Vidarbha would not have committed suicide if the region had been a separate state, the former Union Minister said. Farmers from the region were ending their lives because they felt they were not getting justice from a Government which they perceived as distant and aloof from their problems, he claimed.

Mr Sathe said Congress President Sonia Gandhi was in favour of granting statehood to Vidarbha, but some leaders from the party itself were opposed to the demand. The leaders were afraid to let go of Vidarbha as they were afraid that the party would then lose power in Maharashtra, he alleged.

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