New Delhi: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday (October 30) said that the state government was still “committed” to the promise of farm loan waiver and that it will take a decision on it by June 30, 2026. The announcement comes amid an ongoing agitation led by former Achalpur MLA Bachchu Kadu in Nagpur.According to a report by The Indian Express, Fadnavis made the announcement after a meeting with a delegation led by Prahar Janshakti Party leader Kadu and other farmer leaders late Thursday night. Ahead of the meeting, the state government set up a nine-member committee to be headed by Praveen Pardeshi, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Maharashtra Institute for Transformation (MITRA) and chief economic advisor to Fadnavis.The committee has been tasked to submit a report to suggest short term and long term measures to improve farmers’ lives and bring them out of the debt trap.“We had promised farm loan waiver in our election manifesto. We are committed to the same. We have formed a high-level committee headed by MITRA CEO Praveen Pardeshi which will give us the report by April 1 (in six months). Based on that, a decision will be taken on this by June 30, 2026,” the chief minister said, as quoted in the report.Fadnavis also maintained that at present, the state government was in “financial trouble” owing to the floods and that its priority is to ensure money is deposited directly into the bank accounts of flood-hit farmers for the upcoming Rabi season.According to Express, he said around Rs 6,000 crore of the total Rs 8,500 crore fund released had already been deposited into the accounts of farmers and the next tranche of Rs 11,000 crore was being processed after cabinet approval.“It is true that the state already has financial burden. The government is in financial trouble. But we will find a way out of it,” he was quoted in the report as saying.Meanwhile, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court has taken suo motu notice of the Maha Elgar Morcha, the farmer agitation led by Kadu, blocking the National Highway-44 on the outskirts of Nagpur over farm loan waiver and other demands.Farmers and supporters of Prahar Janshakti Party block the Nagpur-Hyderabad National Highway (NH-44) during a protest demanding loan waivers for farmers, October 28. Photo: PTIThe court directed the protesters to vacate the road as it reportedly resulted in a traffic jam of over 20 kilometres that lasted for several hours. On Wednesday night, the police arrived to clear the road but the agitating farmers refused to budge. Subsequently, Kadu, along with farmer leaders Raju Shetti, Mahadev Jankar, Ajit Nawale met Fadnavis in Mumbai on Thursday evening with a list of demands.Apart from farm loan waiver, the protesting farmers have also demanded 20% subsidy on minimum support price, or MSP, to agricultural commodities; a subsidy of Rs 5 lakh to households in rural areas, the same criteria as in cities; covering farmers’ expenses from sowing to harvesting through the Maharashtra Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; and cancellation of Nagpur-Goa Shaktipeeth highway project.The contentious highway project was briefly put on hold last year following protests by farmers, particularly in Kolhapur, who feared that large-scale land acquisitions would impact them adversely. In August this year, the state government granted an approval of Rs 20,787 crore for land acquisition.