Aadhaar mandatory for farmers in Maharashtra to avail loan waiver

The Devendra Fadnavis government has given farmers one month to apply for the waiver

Farmers in Maharashtra can start applying to avail the loan waiver scheme from Monday, however, Aadhaar has been made compulsory for every applicant. Farmers in the state who are eligible to avail the loan waiver have one month's time to apply starting Monday.

The Devendra Fadnavis government has prepared specific forms for farmers to avail the Rs 34,000 crore loan waiver. A checklist has been put up to filter out farmers who are not eligible for the waiver. In a bid to weed out ghost accounts and undeserving beneficiaries, the government has made it mandatory for farmers to give their Aahdaar numbers. "We have prepared simple forms, which will be available at 25,000 centres. Every gram panchayat will have at least one centre to collect the forms. It is an online process and the scrutiny will be faster and accurate," Fadnavis said on Sunday.

The Maharashtra government had decided to build a specific software to disburse the populist loan waiver. Linking Aadhaar cards to each beneficiary's far loan waiver form, according to the government, is to ensure that only those deserving reap benefits of the loan waiver.

"We decided to take the online form distribution route to avoid ghost accounts. It has been noticed previously that money was being disbursed to ghost accounts. We will link the loan waiver form with farmers' Aadhaar," said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The rolling out of online forms comes on the day of Maharashtra assembly session begins.

The online application is estimated to be distributed to 89 lakh farmers across Maharashtra. Centres in every gram panchayat will dole out forms for the next one month. Aadhaar is a must to apply for the loan waiver. Each Aadhaar number quoted by the aspiring beneficiary will be cross verified with loan and land details.

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