Bhandara: 18,430 farmers get loan waiver, Aadhaar authentication pending for 3,698

In Bhandara district, 18,430 farmers have so far received the direct benefit of loan waiver under the state government's Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana 2026. A list of 26,742 eligible farmers in the district has been released. Of them, 23,044 have completed the Aadhaar authentication process. The administration is now focusing on getting the remaining farmers authenticated and on disposing of pending complaints.

A district-level meeting chaired by District Collector Savankumar was held on Friday to review implementation of the scheme. District Deputy Registrar Vilas Deshpande briefed it on grievance redressal, Aadhaar authentication and distribution of benefits. He said the district-level grievance redressal committee has disposed of most of the complaints.

According to the figures, the district-level committee has so far received 204 online complaints. Of these, 181 have been disposed of, while 23 are still pending. All 36 offline complaints received at the district and tehsil levels have been disposed of.

Alongside the disposal of complaints, work is under way to complete Aadhaar authentication of the eligible farmers. Of the 26,742 eligible farmers in the district, authentication of 3,698 is still pending. District Collector Savankumar has directed the departments concerned to complete this work.

1,845 farmers do not have a Farmer ID.

Among the farmers who have benefited from the loan waiver, 1,028 have also been given fresh kharif crop loans worth Rs 4.21 crore. Crop loans for the new season are thus being disbursed along with the waiver.

Authentication is mandatory for the loan waiver. The next phase will therefore concentrate on three things: completing the remaining Aadhaar authentication of eligible farmers, clearing cases held up because a Farmer ID is missing, and disposing of the pending online complaints.