Maharashtra begins rollout of Farmer Loan Waiver Scheme; first 500 beneficiaries announced

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Maharashtra government on Wednesday (July 23, 2025) began the rollout of the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjamukti scheme, announcing the first 500 beneficiaries, against the backdrop of the birth anniversary of the Deputy Chief Minister of the State, late Ajit Pawar. 

A list of 500 selected eligible beneficiaries from six districts has been issued. According to the statement from the CMO, the message (SMS) will be sent to the beneficiaries concerning the Aadhaar authentication on their mobile phones. 

The said lists will be published at the village level in the Gram Panchayat, various executive cooperative society offices and the respective bank branches. Farmers are required to authenticate their Aadhaar based on their Aadhaar number or the specific number allocated to the farmers in the list.

The Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjamukti scheme, 2026, was announced on June 2. The criteria of the scheme were partially revised on July 15. For the implementation of the loan waiver and one-time settlement (OTS) element of the said scheme, a total of 53 banks, including 30 District Central Cooperative Banks, 12 Nationalised Banks and other private banks in the State, have uploaded the information of farmers’ loan accounts on the portal developed by MahaIT for this scheme. The information of all the accounts of the District Central Cooperative Banks has been verified by the auditors of the Cooperative Department, as per the State Agriculture Department 

The Potential Linked Plan for crop credit provision, prepared by NABARD for the year 2026-27, is worth ₹95,373 crore. According to the District Credit Plan compiled by the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), the target for crop loan allocation for the state is ₹75449 crore.

Out of the said annual target, ₹52822 crore is earmarked for Kharif loans and ₹22627 crore for Rabi loans, with a target of providing loans to 64 lakh farmers this year.

The bank-wise allocation is as follows — ₹26865 crore is allocated to District Central Cooperative Banks, ₹33588 crore to Public Sector Banks, Rs. 9923 crore to Private and Microfinance Banks, and ₹5073 crore to Rural Banks.

The entire above process will be completed by July 31 for the eligible beneficiaries of all the District Central Cooperative Banks in the state. Thereafter, the process of benefit transfer will be taken up to the eligible beneficiaries of all the commercial banks.