Maharashtra to waive Rs 48,000 crore pending farm power dues: CM Fadnavis
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the state government will waive around Rs 48,000 crore in pending electricity dues of farmers to help
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the state government will waive around Rs 48,000 crore in pending electricity dues of farmers to help them get fresh agricultural power connections. Fadnavis made the announcement at a function held to felicitate him over the recently announced farm loan waiver scheme. Fadnavis said the government had already waived electricity bills for agricultural pumps up to 7.5 horsepower, but many farmers were still struggling to get new power connections because old dues continued to be recorded in their names. Read Full Story “To resolve this issue, the government will take a decision to waive the earlier pending electricity dues amounting to Rs 48,000 crore,” he said. Farmers honoured the chief minister at Yashwantrao Chavan Centre in Mumbai for announcing the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Farmer Loan Waiver Scheme, under which loans of up to Rs 2 lakh will be waived.
Fadnavis said the scheme would benefit 56 lakh farmers and involve a total outlay of Rs 36,585 crore. He said restrictions that applied to beneficiaries of the earlier Mahatma Jyotirao Phule farmer loan waiver scheme had been removed, allowing them to get benefits of up to Rs 2 lakh under the new scheme. He also said the government had withdrawn the condition that required eligible farmers to repay loans regularly during 2026-27 in order to avail of the benefit. The chief minister said the state was making major investments to support sustainable agriculture through irrigation projects, water conservation, cold storage facilities, value addition, food processing industries and better market linkages. Fadnavis said these investments would raise farm incomes over the next few years. He said the government was promoting quality seeds, modern farming methods, drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, and digital platforms that connect farmers directly with markets through different subsidy schemes.
The state, he said, aimed to make farming more productive and profitable by taking new technologies to the village level through partnerships with agricultural universities, cooperative institutions and the private sector. Fadnavis said the Centre and the Maharashtra government together would invest about Rs 95,000 crore in the agriculture sector this year through various schemes. He also called for wider adoption of natural farming practices, including the use of Jeevamrut as a natural fertiliser, along with technologies such as Israeli fertigation systems, fully automated drip irrigation and Artificial Intelligence to cut cultivation costs and improve soil fertility. He said the government was also working on long-term water conservation measures, including river-linking projects, to make Maharashtra drought-free. Referring to annual flooding in the Satara-Sangli region, he said efforts were on to divert surplus floodwaters to drought-prone Marathwada through diversion barrages.
The BriefWire