Maharashtra govt announces loan waiver for flood-affected farmers with 1-hectare land

Mumbai: In a major relief to farmers affected by the floods that were triggered by incessant rainfall across the state, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday announced that the loans taken up by farmers holding land up to one hectare would be either waived off or paid by the state government.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, news agency ANI quoted Fadnavis as saying, "Those who had not taken any loan will be compensated with triple the amount of normal compensation for the crops."

Fadnavis further said that the state government will give Rs 1 lakh and construct new houses for those people whose houses were damaged due to floods under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The CM further said that ration would be provided free of cost for the next three months to all the flood-affected people. 

Before the press conference, Maharashtra CM chaired a cabinet sub-committee meeting to announce the assistance to flood-affected persons in Mumbai. Ministers including Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Eknath Shinde, Dr Suresh Khade, Subhash Deshmukh, Sadabhau Khot, and Ravindra Chavan were present at the meeting.

CM @Dev_Fadnavis chaired cabinet SubCommittee meeting to announce assistance to flood affected persons at Mumbai this afternoon.

Ministers Chandrakant Patil, Girish Mahajan, Eknath Shinde, Dr Suresh Khade, Subhash Deshmukh, Sadabhau Khot, Ravindra Chavan were present. pic.twitter.com/LyGiWPmBpI

— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) August 19, 2019

Till Friday, the state and the central government released Rs 3,150 crore for the relief, rescue and rehabilitation operations to bring back normalcy in the flood-devastated state. Around Rs 2,474 crore was released by the Centra via National Disaster Relief Fund and Rs 676 crore was released by Maharashtra government through State Disaster Relief Fund.

Earlier on Monday, CM Fadnavis thanked Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries for contributing Rs 5 crore towards Chief Minister's Relief Fund to aid the rehabilitation operations in the state. 

Thank you Reliance Industries Ltd for the contribution of ₹5 crore towards #CMReliefFund #MaharashtraFloods ! pic.twitter.com/GhA14nimlN

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) August 19, 2019

The death toll from various rain and flood-related incidents in Maharashtra due to torrential rains for over past three weeks touched 50, with Sangli and Kolhapur districts being the worst-affected.

According to Pune district administration, around 6.7 lakh people from 425 villages in Kolhapur and Sangli were evacuated to relief camps with property, and livestock worth crores getting damaged. Around 8 lakh people across five districts of Maharashtra, including Pune, Solapur, Sangli, Kohlapur and Satara were evacuated to safety camps set up across the state.