Maharashtra budget fails to address farm loan waiver, rural growth: Jayant Patil

Senior NCP SP leader Jayant Patil on Tuesday claimed that the Maharashtra governments budget falls short on crucial issues such as farm loan waiver rural development and social welfare reported news agency PTISpeaking in the state assembly the MLA accused the ruling Mahayuti dispensation of failing to fulfil promises made to farmers including a loan waiver reported PTILoan waiver promise scaled down says PatilMaharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who holds the finance portfolio presented a Rs 769467 crore state budget in the assembly on March 6 and said Maharashtra will become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2047He announced a loan waiver scheme for farmers wherein crop loans of up to Rs 2 lakh till September 30 2025 will be written offPatil said While the chief minister had announced farm loan waiver up to Rs 5 lakh during the election campaign only Rs 2 lakh has been waived so farMany cultivators continue to struggle under heavy debt in regions like Vidarbha he addedThe previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government in which NCP SP was a partner had initiated a substantial farm loan waiver programme in 2019 he told the HouseQuestions raised over rising state debtPatil also highlighted what he described as a contradictory approach by the government of closing underpopulated Marathi medium schools in remote areas to save funds while taking large loans for infrastructure projects reported PTIHe also pointed out that Maharashtras debt had risen sharply from around Rs 4 lakh crore to over Rs 11 lakh crore in recent yearsThe budget was not inclusive and focused only on infrastructure Instead of doubling farmers income the state debt was spiralling to over Rs 11 lakh crore he saidConcerns over AI impact and economic growthThe legislator said he expected the government to spell out what steps would be taken to meet the challenges posed by artificial intelligence AI reported PTIOn economic growth the NCP SP leader claimed that Maharashtra was lagging behind other statesCiting GST and sectoral growth data he said that while Gujarat Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have posted higher growth rates Maharashtra has slipped from the top positionOpposition seeks higher allocations for welfare sectorsPatil also raised concerns about allocations for social welfare agriculture and dairy development sectors arguing that schemes such as the Matsya Sampada Yojana and welfare measures announced for dairy farmers were underfunded in the budget reported PTIHe urged the government to address future challenges including potential employment losses due to technological changes like AIWhile the government talks about inclusive growth the budget fails to translate promises into actionable provisions Patil claimed stressing that fiscal discipline should not come at the cost of neglecting rural and social sectors reported PTIThe debate over the budget is expected to continue over the next few days with Opposition leaders scrutinising allocations across sectorsWith inputs from PTI