Mumbai, (The Hindu): The much-awaited farm loan waiver scheme of Maharashtra will start on Wednesday, and the phase-wise disbursement will take at least one month, said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday.

Mr. Fadnavis, at his official residence Varsha, told reporters that around 10 lakh farmers will benefit on the first day. “We have received around 77–80 lakh applications. We expect to complete the process in the next 25–30 days.”

“We are in favour of the loan waiver, but the money required for the scheme cannot be diverted from the SC and ST sub-plan. We strongly condemn the government action of diverting fund,” said Priyadarshi Telang, convener, Dalit Adivasi Adhikar Andolan.

He said the government should bring in a legislation on lines of Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh whereby any diversion of funds is prohibited.

The loan waiver scheme was caught in the controversy after the government made it mandatory that farmers file application forms and link those with their Aadhaar numbers.

The government missed the deadline of October 1 to start depositing money in farmers’ accounts. It happened as the government did not receive the application form details from banks. Further, the code of conduct due to gram panchayat polls delayed the process.