Concerned over the fallout of a prolonged agrarian unrest, the BJP-led government in Maharashtra backed down on Sunday and agreed "in principle" to a loan waiver for all sections of farmers. The criteria will be fixed by a committee of officials and agriculturists. Soon after, farmer groups, which had been agitating for the past 10 days and threatening to intensify it on Monday, called off their protest. They set a deadline of July 25 for the government to fulfill its promises. The stir was launched in west and north Maharashtra on June 1 with activists disrupting traffic and supplies to markets. CM Devendra Fadnavis had offered a conditional waiver last week, but the offer was spurned.

Concerned over the fallout of a prolonged agrarian unrest, the BJP-led government in Maharashtra backed down on Sunday and agreed "in principle" to a loan waiver for all sections of farmers. The criteria will be fixed by a committee of officials and agriculturists. Soon after, farmer groups, which had been agitating for the past 10 days and threatening to intensify it on Monday, called off their protest. They set a deadline of July 25 for the government to fulfill its promises. The stir was launched in west and north Maharashtra on June 1 with activists disrupting traffic and supplies to markets. CM Devendra Fadnavis had offered a conditional waiver last week, but the offer was spurned.