Mumbai, Oct 30 : The Maharashtra government on Thursday constituted a nine-member committee to examine and recommend measures on the politically sensitive issue of farm loan waiver. The panel will be chaired by retired bureaucrat and current CEO of Maharashtra Institution for Transformation (MITRA), Pravin Pardeshi.

According to a government notification issued, the committee includes additional chief secretaries of the revenue, finance, agriculture, cooperation and marketing departments, along with representatives from the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank and the Bank of Maharashtra, among others.

The panel has been tasked with submitting its report within six months, outlining both short-term and long-term recommendations to provide relief to indebted farmers. The move comes amid an ongoing protest in Nagpur led by Prahar Sanghatana chief and former minister Bachchu Kadu, who has demanded an immediate farm loan waiver.

During the monsoon session, then Agriculture Minister Manikrao Kokate had announced the government's intention to form such a committee to bring about 'radical change' in farmers' lives and free them from mounting debt. Although the announcement was made on July 18, the actual notification was issued only today -- coinciding with Kadu's intensified agitation.

Kadu, while welcoming the government's move, asserted that only genuinely needy farmers should be eligible for the waiver. 'Farmers who are financially capable ' government employees, pensioners, or businessmen who farm for tax benefits ' should be excluded. With Digital India, it is easy to identify the real beneficiaries,' he said.

He demanded that all loans of needy farmers be waived off immediately without conditions, with even those regularly repaying loans getting a seven-year grace period. The waiver, he said, must cover not only crop loans but also medium-term and development loans ' including those for polyhouses, shade nets, irrigation and land improvement.

Kadu further demanded a 20 per cent subsidy on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farm produce, Rs 5 lakh housing subsidy for rural families on par with urban areas, and inclusion of all farm expenses from sowing to harvesting under the Maharashtra Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Among his other demands were cancellation of the Nagpur'Goa Shaktipeeth highway, a Rs 6,000 monthly honorarium for the disabled, widows, women and orphans, and separate welfare policies for shepherds and fishermen. He also sought a permanent resolution of Gram Panchayat employees' salary issues.

Calling for fair returns to farmers, Kadu proposed a Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs 4,300 per tonne for sugarcane with 9 per cent recovery and Rs 430 for each additional percent, Rs 40 per kg for onions with the removal of export curbs, and a minimum milk rate of Rs 50 per litre for cow's milk and Rs 65 for buffalo milk. 'The government must ensure fair pricing and implement FRP and revenue-sharing models in the milk sector,' he said.

/IANS