Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has announced a compensation of Rs 20,000 per hectare for paddy growers in the state who have suffered crop loss due to multiple reasons, including unseasonal rains. There will be a ceiling of two hectares per farmer for the relief. The government has allocated Rs 1,000 crore to meet this exigency.
Announcement came as response to farmers' distress
The announcement, expected as the winter session of the state legislature entered the last leg, came in reply to the debate on farmers' distress kicked off last week by the leader of the opposition, Vijay Wadettiwar, and saw the participation of several members of the lower house.
Dismissing the opposition charge that his government was insensitive to issues related to farmers' plight, Shinde said that in the last 18 months, his government has extended benefits and compensation to the tune of Rs 44,278 crore to farmers to bail them out of the crisis caused by floods, drought, untimely rains, etc. "This itself is a new record as far as providing relief to farmers in the state is concerned till now," he added.
"We are working towards this larger goal"
Claiming that his government always stood by the farmers because it is their toil that provides people at large two meals a day, Shinde said it was sad that no government to date could create agrarian conditions that would once and for all do away with the farmers suffering losses perennially and then forced to seek external help. "We are working towards this larger goal of enabling farmers to do sustainable farming," said Shinde.
The chief minister also announced the setting up of an "onion Mahabank" facility for the irradiation of crops to provide price stability for onion cultivators.
"44 lakh farmers were given loan waiver benefits"
He said under the Chhatrapati Shetkari Sanman scheme, 44 lakh farmers were given loan waiver benefits to the tune of Rs 18,762 crore. Around 6.5 lakh farmers were left out of the scheme because of a technical software glitch and would be given the loan waiver now, he added.
