At a time when Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is sitting on an indefinite hunger strike "until peace is restored", state Agriculture Minister Gauri Shankar Bisen said on Saturday that farmers can not be given a loan waiver.
"There will be certain eligibility criterion which we will decide in a joint committee meeting of farmer representatives and government officials", said Mr. Patil, in a press conference held after the meeting.
"The government has made a decision to waive farmers' loans".
Farmers' leaders indicated that the formal withdrawal of the strike could be made after discussions with leaders of the Kisan Kranti later in the day.
Shetti, who is also a leader of political organisation Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana, told Firstpost that the farmers' community is ready to start another set of protests if the promises are not fulfilled by 25 July. "The modalities are being worked out and I can say with conviction that this will be the biggest loan waiver in Maharashtra's history", Fadnavis had told reporters after a meeting on urban development with Union minister Venkaiah Naidu.
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The ministers' group has made a decision to restart fresh loan disbursal to farmers from today, Raghunathdada said.
Profit sharing on milk has been decided at 70-30.
Those present at the meeting included Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, Transport Minister Diwakar Raote and Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan while the farmers were represented by Raju Shetti, the Peasants and Workers Party's Jayant Patil, independent MLA Bachchu Kadu and Subhash Deshmukh.
State government was under enormous pressure from farmers who were protesting for the loan waiver for the past couple of weeks. They had threatened to intensify the agitation from June 12 onwards if their demands were not met.
Most of these farmers were tenants who did not own the farmland, and therefore did not qualify for benefits such as subsidised loans or crop insurance, said Raghu Pillai, head of the land and livelihood hub at advocacy group ActionAid India. The state is already under debt of Rs 4 lakh crore.
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