The state Cabinet approved the scheme on June 2, and notified it through a Government Resolution (GR) the same day. The government later revised parts of the eligibility criteria through another GR issued on July 15.
The scheme aims to provide farm loan waivers of up to ₹2 lakh to nearly 56 lakh eligible farmer families across Maharashtra.
First beneficiary list released
At a state-level press conference, Maharashtra Co-operation Minister Babasaheb Patil announced the launch of the scheme and released the symbolic beneficiary list. According to the minister, the list was issued to mark the birth anniversary of former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
The Co-operation Department said eligible beneficiaries will receive SMS alerts asking them to complete Aadhaar authentication. Once the verification process is completed, the eligible loan waiver amount will be credited directly to their loan accounts through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system.
How the process will work
The government said the scheme is being implemented through a dedicated portal developed by MahaIT, using loan data uploaded by 53 banks, including 30 district central cooperative banks (DCCBs), 12 nationalised banks and several private banks.
According to the department, auditors verified all loan accounts uploaded by district central cooperative banks before the beneficiary lists were finalised.
Each eligible farmer will receive a unique identification number and will have to complete Aadhaar authentication using either the Aadhaar number or the unique ID. The authentication facility has been made available through around 32,000 Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendras across Maharashtra.
Before Aadhaar authentication, beneficiaries must also complete registration on the Agristack platform.
The government said beneficiary lists will also be displayed at gram panchayat offices, multipurpose cooperative societies and the concerned bank branches.
The state aims to complete the process for eligible borrowers of district central cooperative banks by July 31. After that, it will begin transferring benefits to eligible farmers who have loans with commercial banks.
Who is not eligible?
The government has excluded several categories from the scheme, including:
- Former and sitting MPs and MLAs.
- Office-bearers of urban and rural local bodies.
- Serving and retired government and semi-government employees.
- Income-tax payers with non-agricultural income.
- Office-bearers and employees of district central cooperative banks, urban cooperative banks, cooperative sugar factories, spinning mills, milk unions and agricultural produce market committees.
Eligibility norms relaxed
The rollout follows changes announced earlier this month by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to widen the scheme’s coverage.
The government has decided that farmers covered under the 2019 Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Farm Loan Waiver Scheme will now be eligible for a loan waiver of up to ₹2 lakh, replacing the earlier provision of a ₹50,000 incentive for prompt repayment.
It has also relaxed the incentive conditions. Instead of requiring farmers to repay crop loans during 2026-27, those who repaid their crop loans in any two previous years will now qualify for the benefit.
(-With inputs from PTI and IANS)
