Make Pardeshi committee recommendations over farm loan waiver public: Farmers’ representatives

Kolhapur: Farmers’ representatives on Thursday demanded that state govt make public the report and recommendations of the Pravin Pardeshi Committee, arguing that transparency was needed to understand the rationale behind linking the 2026 farm loan waiver to the 2019 scheme. Under the new policy, beneficiaries of the 2019 loan waiver have been made ineligible for fresh relief of up to Rs 2 lakh.

The committee, constituted on Oct 30, 2025, was tasked with recommending short- and long-term measures to address the agrarian crisis. It submitted its report on April 30 this year.

The representatives questioned govt’s claims that 56 lakh farmers would benefit from the waiver, amounting to Rs 36,000 crore. They alleged that, in reality, only a few lakh farmers were likely to qualify and that the actual outgo might not exceed Rs 15,000 crore due to restrictive eligibility criteria under the govt resolution (GR) implementing the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Karjamukti Yojana 2026.

Former MP and farmers’ leader Raju Shetti said he had tried to contact Pardeshi, the head of the committee and CM’s chief economic advisor, but was unable to get clarity. “We were told that all concerns raised by farmers’ representatives after last year’s Nagpur protest were addressed in the report. The GR, however, suggests govt’s intent is to help banks rather than farmers,” he said.

He further said the GR provided for a ministerial sub-panel under CM Devendra Fadnavis. “We will seek a meeting with the CM and demand that the Pardeshi panel report be made public,” he said, adding, “There is no information on how many farmers who benefited from the 2019 scheme have defaulted again or how many borrowers have outstanding loans above or below Rs 2 lakh. Without such data, it is difficult to trust the govt’s claims.”

Ravikant Tupkar, a farmers’ representative from Vidarbha, said, “By our assessment, only about 3 lakh farmers will benefit, far fewer than under previous schemes,” he said.

Meanwhile, supporters of the All India Kisan Sabha staged a protest outside the collector’s office in Kolhapur on Thursday, accusing govt of “cheating” farmers by refusing to grant a blanket loan waiver without conditions. Demonstrators burned copies of the GR. “This govt waives loans of large corporates without conditions, but imposes multiple restrictions on farmers. Similar to the Ladki Bahin Yojana, where many women were rendered ineligible due to criteria, farmers will face the same fate,” Girish Phonde, the organisation’s state secretary, said.

He said farmers were unable to secure fair and assured prices for their produce, pushing them into a debt cycle. “The All India Kisan Sabha will launch a statewide agitation against this scheme,” Phonde warned.

List of eligible farmers by July 6

State govt has set up a three-tier monitoring system at the state, divisional and district levels to oversee the scheme’s implementation. According to officials, banks have been asked to submit details of eligible and ineligible farmers by June 7. “Scrutiny of loan accounts will be completed by June 20, after which the data will be uploaded to an online portal. The final list of beneficiaries will be published for Aadhaar authentication by July 6,” a senior cooperative department official said.