AMN / MUMBAI
The Maharashtra govt has managed to save 12,000 crore rupees in farm loan waiver alone by adopting a digital platform that helped eliminate bogus claimants. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was speaking at an industry event organised by corporate lobby CII in Mumbai on Sunday, made this revelation while speaking on the power of digitisation.
Chief Minister said the state farm loan waiver scheme was executed on a digital platform which made it possible to save 12,000 Crore rupees. The state had, in June 2017, announced a farm loan waiver worth 34,022 crore rupees amid rising incidents of farmer suicides due to crop failures or falling prices and rising input costs. The scheme made each farmer with a debt of up to 1.5 lakh rupees eligible for the write-off.
Fadnavis further said the state is launching a programme which is a virtual life cycle management for every farmer. He said from sowing to harvesting, everything will be managed through a digital platform and that will give an advantage to farmers to make this sector more sustainable and predictable.
The Chief Minister further said the state has collaborated with the World Economic Forum for Fourth Industrial Revolution and has started pilot project to introduce drones in agriculture. He said the govt is trying to connect farmers directly to technology and make agriculture more precision-oriented so that the cost could be brought down.
Fadnavis said the state aims to cover all the villages under its broadband connectivity programme by the end of this year which will empower every single citizen to leverage on digital governance and digital economy. He further said his government’s Aple Sarkar Service Kendra has also provided internet access to villages.