Big B donates Rs 33 million to farmers’ cause

Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has come to the rescue of over 114 farmers in Maharashtra’s Wardha district where they were handed cheques on Saturday to repay their debts.

“The debts ranging between Rs 25,000 and Rs 150,000 of these extremely poor farmers have all been cleared through the Rs three million donation given by Amitabh Bachchan,” Mahesh Makolkar, of Rotary Club of Wardha city chief, Mahesh Makolkar, told Gulf News.

With the Rotary Clubs of Bombay and Wardha, where Mahatma Gandhi set up his ashram, being associated in many endeavours for the needy, “we were told that Bachchan had wanted to contribute towards the cause of farmers and therefore we were approached. We sent a list of 300 farmers from 35 villages in Wardha district and they, on Bachchan’s part also conducted a survey through an independent agency.” Finally, 114 farmers from over 20 villages were chosen for the help that has relieved them from repaying their debt to four banks—Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, Bank of India and Wardha District Co-operative Bank. The recovery agents were already contacting the farmers to get them repay their loans, he said.

Makolkar said the Rotary Club now wants to go forward after this big grant to the farmers by advising them to not approach the banks again but instead take advantage of various government schemes through NGOs and others.

Commenting on this gesture by Bachchan, Kishore Tiwari, who represents the farming community’s organisation called Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, says, “We are indebted to Big-B who has shown the way to the UPA government which should now focus on waiver of farm loans. Unfortunately, farmers are not getting any relief due to the stringent conditions of excluding those who hold land above two hectares. Presently, banks are forcibly recovering debts even though the government has declared drought in the region.”

According to him, earlier attempts by government to waive off loans were never targeted at the debt-trapped farmers but instead the scheme worked in reducing the non-performing assets of the bank and rehabilitating co-operative banks run by politicians. In the west Vidarbha region, there are more 10,000 villages where out of three million cotton farmers, more 70 percent are under default, he said.