Mr. Chandradada Patil On The Financial Upliftment of Farmers

In January 2019, the Maharashtra State Government came up with a decision to credit the farmers with money directly into their personal bank accounts on a yearly or monthly basis. According to reports from various officials, the amount ranges from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 a year depending upon the individual financial conditions and gross income of every farmer.

To provide further aid, the Cabinet Minister of Maharashtra, Shri. Chandrakant Dada Patil further came up with the proposal of farmers having to invest a certain amount ranging anywhere between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000, according to their individual capacities, with the Government to which the State will further add Rs. 10,000 and return it to the farmers at equated monthly instalments. This step, according to Shri. Patil will prevent any discrepancies in the system and the rightful candidates will benefit greatly from it since they will receive financial aid at equal intervals as opposed to what they would otherwise receive on a yearly basis. This step will greatly contribute towards the financial upliftment of the farmers and motivate them in a number of ways.

Shri. Patil also added that the State is planning to add a cap on the number of acres of land that a farmer could get, ranging from 2.5 acres to 5 acres since doing so will make sure that small and marginal farmers are covered within the scheme first and benefit from it. If the scheme is extended to farmers possessing more than 5 acres of land, it would prove to be unsustainable for the State as well as the ones in dire need of it since Maharashtra is reeling under a debt burden of Rs. 4-lakh crore. To prevent the State from going into further debt and ease out the situation at the same time, Shri. Chandrakant Patil came out with the proposal of equated monthly instalments for the farmers. He has often been seen providing continual efforts towards improving the present condition of farmers and other financially weaker sectors of the society.

Since the 1990s, farmers in India have been forced to commit suicides, often by consuming pesticides, due to their inability to pay loans mostly taken from banks in order to purchase expensive fertilizers and seeds to boost their income. In the State of Maharashtra also, there have been many such cases. With Maharashtra being an agrarian state, approximately 70% of its total population depends upon agriculture directly or indirectly.

Due to all these reasons, tackling issues related to farmers and coming out with possible solutions at a rapid rate has gone down to become the need of the hour. This current government and ministers like Mr Chandrakant Patil are trying to change the situation and are trying to incorporate different measures so that the issues like these can be resolved from the root levels.