Mumbai: As over 12 districts struggle with drought in Maharashtra, the state government on Wednesday stepped up efforts to provide succour to farmers, allocating Rs 150 crore for immediate relief measures and asked officials to constantly monitor relief works.
Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Patangrao Kadam told reporters that the state Cabinet, which met here today, deliberated for over three hours on the drought situation in 15 districts - Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Latur, Ahmednagar, Osmanabad, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Nagpur, Gondia, Gadchiroli, Amravati and Buldhana.
The government will provide a compensation of Rs 8,000 per hectare up to two hectares to small and medium grape, pomegranate, orange and sweet lime cultivators, Kadam said.
Large cultivators will get the compensation amount for only one hectare.
Similarly, Rs 80 will be given to farmers for each big animal, instead of Rs 40 earlier, and Rs 40 per small animal instead of Rs 20 for providing them fodder and cattle sheds, the minister said.
He also said the leave of all Collectors in the drought-hit districts have been cancelled and they have been asked to keep a strict vigil on implementation of relief and rehabilitation works along with the Divisional Commissioners concerned.
Electricity and water connections discontinued due to non-payment of dues will be reinstated. An amount of Rs 10 crore has been sanctioned for each district to carry out immediate relief measures, Kadam said.
There are 6,201 villages where the kharif yield is below 50 paise and 1,552 villages where the rabi yield was below 50 paise, the Minister added.
PTI
