But experts are sceptical about the success of the scheme. They feel that many farmers will be deprived of the benefits under the scheme. Jaswinder Singh, state secretary, CPI(M) says the scheme will exclude 70 per cent of the farmers who have taken loans from the Mahajan. Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced interest-free loans to farmers, but the cooperative banks were reluctant to lend, forcing the farmers to depend on Mahajani loans. Similarly, banks started to ignore loans to farmer due to the debt waiver. Jaswinder Singh has proposed the constitution of a commission to examine all these issues and study how to provide direct benefits to the farmers. He says that even after the Congress came to power, four farmers in the state have committed suicide.

The chief minister has said that a market study is being conducted to examine debts owed by farmers to Mahajan and that the government will make all possible efforts to curb informal loans. With the 'Jai Kisan crop loan write off scheme', 55 lakh farmers will get Rs 50,000 crore worth of crop loan waiver. Certificates will also be given to the farmers after the loan disbursement and all the procedure will be completed by February.

Dr. Sunilam, executive chairman of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, says that the debt of farmers is the responsibility of the government and therefore it has to ensure adequate budget provision for it before the Code of Conduct for the 2019 general election comes into force. . He says that the government will have to ensure that the fertile lands of farmers will not be acquired in the name of investment and all land acquired from farmers under the Land Acquisition Act must be returned to them.

Chief Minister Kamal Nath had said that the government is committed to make Madhya Pradesh competitive to receive investment. He pointed out that unlike other states, Madhya Pradesh does not have the geographical advantage. Therefore, the state has to make its own policy.

There are many challenges for the farmers loan waiver scheme to succeed. Due to repeated announcement of loan waivers, banks are showing resistance to provide loans to the farmers. Farmers are more concerned about recovering the cost of their crops rather than loan waiver. This is possible only through adequate increases in the minimum support price. The Indifference of new generations towards agriculture will further intensify the crisis in the future. Experts say a complete overhaul of the policy is needed to resurrect the farm sector and just loan waivers will not do. (IPA Service)