Chandrapur farmers denied fresh crop loans after waiver, society head Lode appeals to CM
The head of a Mangarmendha cooperative society says the district central bank is stalling new crop loans for farmers freed of debt under the Ahilyadevi Holkar waiver.
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Farmers have received the benefit of the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar loan waiver scheme from the government, but with fresh crop loans now urgently needed, the Chandrapur District Central Cooperative Bank is avoiding giving new ones, the source says. Anger has surged among farmers as a result.
Khushal Tha. Lode, president of Seva Sahakari Sanstha Maryadit, Mangarmendha (Reg. Dist. 674, Savli taluka, Chandrapur district), has submitted two separate memorandums to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Cooperation Minister Babasaheb Patil and the Chandrapur District Collector. The memorandums were submitted through the Savli tehsildar.
The society submitted the new crop loan cases for the current 2026 season to the bank. The district bank is now asking for a 7/12 land record showing the 2026-27 crop sowing entry. However, the 2026-27 crop sowing data has not yet been uploaded, so the 7/12 record shows only the 2025-26 entry.
The last date for crop loan disbursement was September 30. Farmers submitted applications on September 25 and completed the online process. Even so, an ARO of the district bank gave verbal orders over the phone that loans should not be given to farmers who have been freed of debt, and disbursement has stalled as a result.
Many farmers in the taluka borrowed money from acquaintances, and some took loans from moneylenders, to pay the interest on their old crop loans and clear them. With no new loan forthcoming, they are now in distress. The service society and its farmer members are being made to suffer without reason.
Rainfall this season has been very low and conditions resemble a dry drought. Crops are withering for want of water and yields have fallen by 60 per cent. Meanwhile, the costs of expensive pesticides, expensive fertilisers, transplanting, weeding and harvesting have soared. With farmers helpless, the bank's reluctance to give crop loans is rubbing salt in their wounds, the memorandum says.
The question is what the farmer will eat and how he will survive. The bank should offer support at such a time, but that is not happening. Every farmer is asking today whether anyone stands by the farmer, how the country can be called agrarian, whether the farmer has been reduced to a subject for speeches at big rallies, whether his troubles are not seen, and what is left in his hands after toiling in the fields day and night.
The memorandum demands that the deadline for disbursing new crop loans be extended in the interest of farmers. It also asks that the Chandrapur District Central Cooperative Bank be told by letter to sanction new crop loans, and that a report on the action taken be sent to the office. The request has been made by president Khushal Lode, Shetkari Vividh Seva Sahakari Sanstha, Mangarmendha.
