Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis released the third instalment of the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana on October 2, sending Rs 3,160.43 crore to the crop-loan accounts of 3,27,250 farmers. He made the transfer online from Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai, Bakhar Live reported, and Agrowon carried the same figures.
Across all three phases, 15,85,493 farmers have now received Rs 13,275 crore. That sounds large until you set it against the scheme’s own promise.
The gap between the announcement and the money
Fadnavis announced the scheme in June with an outlay of Rs 36,585 crore and a target of 56 lakh farmers, according to Sarkarnama. That 56 lakh figure includes regular repayers, who get an incentive rather than a waiver. On September 23, Sarkarnama reported that the waiver itself should cover more than 26 lakh beneficiaries once the third list came out, with roughly 24 lakh regular repayers handled separately.
Put those numbers side by side. Three phases have paid about 15.85 lakh farmers, so something close to 10 lakh defaulting borrowers the government expects to cover still have not seen money land. In rupee terms, the state has spent a little over a third of the total outlay.
The phases also arrived in uneven sizes. Phase 1 paid 6,22,207 farmers (Rs 5,029 crore) and phase 2 paid 6,36,036 (Rs 5,086 crore). Phase 3, at 3.27 lakh, came in at about half that, and below the 4 to 5 lakh that Sarkarnama had reported in late September.
Why the third list shrank
Cooperation Commissioner Deepak Taware blamed bank data. He told Sarkarnama that banks had loaded farmers’ outstanding balances with interest, penalties and other charges the scheme does not allow, and gave banks a week to correct the accounts. Joint loan accounts, spelling mismatches between bank records and Aadhaar, and outdated Aadhaar details held up other files.
Verification also trimmed the list. The second list, published in September, named 3,55,614 farmers who still had to complete Aadhaar authentication. Saam TV reported that the count fell to 3.27 lakh after checks, which means roughly 28,000 names from that list did not make this payment. As of September 23, about 4.44 lakh Aadhaar verifications remained pending statewide.
What a farmer still waiting should check
The eligibility rules have not changed. The waiver covers short-term crop loans taken between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2025 that were overdue as of September 30, 2025, up to Rs 2 lakh per farmer, as ThePrint reported when district figures first came out. If your name has not appeared, the reported bottlenecks point to four things to raise with your bank or cooperative society:
- Aadhaar authentication and AgriStack registration. The department processes claims online, and an incomplete Aadhaar step keeps a name off the payment list.
- Name and account details. A spelling that differs between the loan record and Aadhaar has stalled files. So has a joint account.
- The outstanding figure. Ask for a statement and compare it with the principal. Penal interest or extra charges the bank added can push a balance past the Rs 2 lakh cap.
- Dues above Rs 2 lakh. These fall under a one-time settlement: you deposit the amount above Rs 2 lakh, and the state then pays its share.
District numbers show how unevenly the money has spread. Kolhapur has 18,756 beneficiaries so far, worth Rs 123 crore, Sakal reported. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district alone had about 1.80 lakh eligible farmers and Rs 1,632 crore in July. The state declared drought in 265 talukas last month, and for farmers there the timing of the remaining phases decides whether they enter the rabi season with a cleared loan account and access to fresh crop credit.
What to watch
The department has not announced a date for a fourth phase. Officials say they keep updating the beneficiary count as banks correct accounts and farmers finish verification. Two numbers will show whether the scheme reaches the 26 lakh mark: how many of the 4.44 lakh pending Aadhaar checks clear, and when the state starts paying the regular-repayer incentive. Neither has a published timeline yet.
Sources: Bakhar Live, Agrowon, Sarkarnama, Saam TV, ThePrint
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.