Mumbai: Worried by the growing protests of farmers and their relentless demand for farm loan waiver, the Maharashtra government announced in principle a loan waiver on Sunday but today it appears that rich farmers will be excluded.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the loan waiver which prompted the farmers, who had given an ultimatum until June 12, to call off their agitation. However, they’ve given the government time until July 25 to resolve their grievances and that if they are not satisfied would restart their agitation

A relieved chief minister had tweeted, “Discussions between Government of Maharashtra and representatives of farmers reached a common consensus. Farmers have called off the strike,” and also said conditions and detailing will be finalised by a joint committee.

Conceding to another demand, he said the government “accepts the demand of farmers to increase the milk prices.”

Last week, Fadnavis had announced a loan waiver but did not confirm the size of the waiver. But it now appears they would have to mobilise Rs350 billion for the waiver.

The government will be setting up a high-level committee for the implementation of the scheme announced on Sunday. PTI has reported that “rich farmers are likely to be excluded from the loan waiver.” It reported that State Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said today that the committee to be formed would look into the criteria of debt relief.

“We have found that the loan waiver scheme introduced previously (2007-2008) had benefited the rich farmers largely in Maharashtra. To avoid it, we will set up a high-level committee to omit such rich farmers from the list of beneficiaries. The mechanism for the same will be worked out with the help of the committee,” he said.

The government now has a challenge to come up with Rs350 billion for the waiver, especially since the Central government has made it clear that there will be no intervention on this issue from their side.

Maharashtra is among the several states where the incidence of farmers’ suicide is high and many of their grievances have gone unheeded for years. This is especially since the cost of cultivation has risen sharply and the price of farm produce has not gone up to compensate their expenses. After two years of drought, the agriculture sector in the state showed a record growth of 12.5 per cent in 2016-2017 as compared to 2015-2016. While it should have been a prosperous scenario, the government failed to ensure that the farmers’ got a good remunerative price.