On Sunday, the Maharashtra government announced a loan waiver for farmers, a demand over which the latter has been protesting for over 10 days. Farmers have been demanding an increase in prices for their produce.

Following the announcement, the farmers called off the protest. “We have decided to temporarily call off our agitation… However, if no satisfactory decision is taken (on the criterion for loan waiver) by July 25, we will restart our stir,” farmer leader and Lok Sabha member Raju Shetti, was quoted as saying.

Though the government changed its stance on providing a waiver to only small and marginal farmers, the catch for the government lies in providing a loan waiver to 31 lakh farmers which add up to about 1.14 lakh crores.

“The loan waiver is for all farmers and not confined to just small and marginal categories. There will be defined parameters to ensure genuine and needy farmers are not left out of the institutional credit bracket,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

The decision was taken after a series of meetings between a panel of ministers and farmers’ committee. Though the size of the waiver has not been decided yet, it is being touted to be the largest in the state’s history.

“I am challenging the Congress, NCP and other parties… that this will be the biggest loan waiver in Maharashtra’s history,” CM Fadnavis said.

Following the demands of the farmers, the government has also decided to increase prices of milk from June 20 onwards to benefit dairy farmers. “We want to stop exploitation of farmers who are often underpaid. The formula for fixing the milk rate for farmers will be derived, as is done in the case of sugarcane. The ration of 70:30 profit share between sugar mills and cane farmers will be enforced for the milk sector,” Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said.

This decision comes months after others states, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, offered similar waivers to their farmers. Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel has come down heavily against farm loan waivers in the past and this time too. He has warned that the waiver could dissolve the gains made by the state in the past few years.