Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers’ groups unhappy with state govt’s rain relief

Aurangabad: As the state government announced a relief aid worth Rs 10,000 crore for the rain-hit parts of Maharashtra, farmers’ groups in Marathwada have termed the measure inadequate while highlighting the widespread damage in the region alone. Rajan Kshirsagar, of the Maharashtra Kisan Sabha, on Saturday said, “The flood-hit areas of western Maharashtra had received more help in recent past when compared to what is expected for Marathwada now. While farmers were expecting compensation worth Rs 40,000 per hectare and waiver in power bills among other measures, the government has announced insufficient help,” he said. People, who are engaged in contractual farming were omitted from the aid. “An official consideration was expected for such contractual farmers but they have been neglected. In a way, around 50% of the rural population, who were hit by the rain fury, have been left in the lurch,” he said. Claiming that Marathwada has witnessed over 500 incidents of cloudbursts, Jayaji Suryawanshi of ‘Annadata’ farmers said those farmers, whose agricultural land was eroded due to such natural calamity, have failed to get official attention. “The entire panchanama process in Marathwada was defective and could not give an actual projection of the damage. While 44,000 villages from the region have been affected due to the rain, the sum of Rs 10,000 crore to be disbursed across Maharashtra is inadequate,” he said. Farmers’ groups have announced protests to demand more help. Aurangabad district collector Sunil Chavan said the district has received more help from the state government when compared to NDRF norms. “Aurangabad district is entitled to get Rs 555.39 crore from the total relief aid, which is Rs 170.46 crore more than relief aid expected as per NDRF norm. ,” he said.

The Times of India

2021-10-17

Aurangabad