Sena keeps up Budget suspense
No concrete assurance from the Centre
The meeting between a delegation of BJP and Shiv Sena ministers led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on Friday on loan waiver to the state’s farmers did not yield the desired results. The team from Maharashtra returned to Mumbai on Friday night itself. The Sena, which is an ally of the ruling BJP in Maharashtra, too, kept the suspense over whether it will allow the tabling of the Bugdet on Saturday going.
The Shiv Sena and the opposition have been stalling the Assembly for days demanding that the Fadnavis government should extend some relief to debt-ridden farmers of the state. In fact, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has instructed his legislators not to allow both the Houses to function.
As Sena President Uddhav Thackeray has instructed his legislators not to allow business of the House till the government will not take the decision.
Sena leaders, including Subhash Desai, Ramdas Kadam, Diwakar Raote, Eknath Shinde, BJP ministers Subhash Deshmukh, Babanrao Lonikar, Prashant Bamb, Vijay Auty and others were part of the delegation.
Sena ministers had hoped that the chief minister will get the Union government to announce some financial grant so that the state could come up with some loan waiver scheme. Fadnavis is believed to have asked the Union government to formulate a scheme that will bring farmers into the institutional credit system.
But that clearly did not happen. Disappointed with the outcome, Sena minister Eknath Shinde said, “We don't want any other scheme, we just want a loan waiver scheme.” He said he will inform party president Uddhav Thackeray about the outcome of the meeting and the Sena chief will take a call on the issue.
The Shiv Sena's Kesarkar, however, sounded a moderate note. “Uddhavji has told ministers that we are in government to work for the people. Being part of government, we should ensure the presentation of the Budget in the Upper House.”
Sources in Delhi said that the Centre is aware of the plight of farmers not only in Maharashtra, but also throughout the country. It is likely that the central government will come up with a scheme that will help the farming community to come out of the crisis. Most of the financial impact, thus, will be borne by the Centre with little pressure on the state.
Such a scheme will not be Maharashtra-specific but will benefit farmers throughout the country. This is also what the Prime Minister wants in the run-up to the 2019 parliamentary polls.