The Maharashtra government will start disbursing the loan waiver amounts to farmers’ accounts on Wednesday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday while talking to farmers.

The state had in June agreed to waive farmer loans and said a committee would decide the criteria for the waiver. Farmer bodies had been agitating for several days, demanding waivers in their defaulted loans.

Maharashtra had decided to waive farm loans worth Rs 34,000 crore for small and marginal farmers under the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana. Farmers who had availed crop loans or term loans after April 2009 and had defaulted on them are eligible to get their loans waived up to Rs 1.5 lakh, subject to certain criteria.

Over 56 lakh farmers had applied for the waivers by September 22, according to the initiative’s website.