Farmers incurring loss of 33% of crop also to qualify for relief aid

 

* State Govt clears 50 per cent hike in compensation to farmers affected by natural calamity

Staff Reporter
Now, farmers losing 33 per cent of the crop also will qualify to get benefit of relief package announced by the State Government. So far, farmers incurring loss of 50 per cent of crop used to get aid from the Government. A decision to this effect was taken in the State Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday.
For years, only the farmers who lost at least 50 per cent of their agricultural crop to natural calamity or hailstorm, excessive rainfall etc used to get benefits of relief measures announced by the State Government. The farmers who lost less than 50 per cent of the crop were left out of the aid or package announced by the Government. Besides, the benefits of scarcity combat plan were given to villages that saw farmers losing 50 per cent of the crop or more.
Recently, the Central Government decided to revise the norms and brought down the qualification benchmark for relief aid from 50 per cent to 33 per cent. State Cabinet, on Tuesday, decided to implement the Centre’s decision in Maharashtra. Accordingly, the proposal was cleared.
Further, the State Cabinet gave its nod to enhancing the compensation amount for crop loss due to natural calamity, by 50 per cent. The change has been effected against the backdrop of amendments in accordance with 14th Finance Commission recommendations. At present, compensation of Rs 4,500 per hectare is paid to farmers for non-irrigated or rainfed lands, and that for irrigated land is Rs 9,000  per hectare. With the State Cabinet’s decision, the aid for non-irrigated farm land has been increased to Rs 6,800 per hectare and that for irrigated farm land to Rs 13,500 per hectare. For horticulture crops, the compensation amount has been raised from Rs 12,000 per hectare to Rs 18,000 per hectare. The farmers will continue to get compensation for a maximum of two hectares.
It may be mentioned here that the Central Government has recently included cyclone, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, drought, cloudburst, excessive cold etc. Maharashtra Government has decided to adopt the changes effected by the Centre. However, the farmers affected by the current spell of drought, unseasonal rains, and hailstorm will get the compensation as per the previous rates.
************************

11 senior bureaucrats to monitor
works in suicide-hit districts
 

* In case of a farmer’s suicide, the bureaucrat concerned will have to submit to the Government cause detailed analysis on why the suicide could not be averted

Staff Reporter
Maharashtra Government has entrusted 11 senior Secretary-level officers to monitor the drought relief works in Yavatmal and Osmanabad districts that are affected by farmers’ suicides. These senior bureaucrats have been given the responsibility to implement effectively all Government schemes, and have been empowered to take necessary decisions.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has issued directions in this regard. The move is being seen widely as Chief Minister’s effort to resolve issues concerning farmers in these two districts, to bring down suicides. The officers are expected to visit the respective sub-division at least once in a fortnight and take stock of the execution of various works and implementation of different schemes. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked them to ensure that the works if ‘Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan’ are completed by June 15, and submit a progress report in this regard on fortnightly basis.
A senior bureaucrat will look after one sub-division in these two districts. The bureaucrats appointed to look after a sub-division each in Yavatmal district are as follows: D K Jain (Yavatmal sub-division), V Giriraj (Darwha), Vikas Kharge (Ralegaon), Mahesh Pathak (Pusad), Rajagopal Deora (Umarkhed), Malini Shankar (Wani), and Prabhakar Deshmukh (Kelapur). The Secretaries asked to look after Osmanabad district include Rajesh Meena (Osmanabad), Mukesh Khullar (Kalamb), Bijoy Kumar (Bhoom), and Sunil Porwal (Umarga).
If a farmer commits suicide in a particular sub-division of these districts, the Secretary concerned will have to submit a detailed analysis to the Government explaining why the suicide could not be averted. Thus, they will be answerable to the Government in case of farmers’ suicides in given sub-divisions. They have been entrusted with the tasks of ensuring that Government aid reached the distressed farmers, discouraging farmers from committing suicide, making available counselling facility for de-addiction, restructuring their loan burden, making available proper market and rate for farm produce etc. Sensing that the bureaucrats may face hurdles due to existing clauses in Government Resolutions (GRs), the Chief Minister has empowered these Secretaries with powers to effect amendments to GRs to pave way for effective implementation of steps taken by the Government to prevent farmers’ suicides. 

(05-05-15)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chanda boy Dr Vipin Itankar is UPSC topper in State

Hinganghat: Here rests the great surveyor of India...

Eknath Ranade, the man with ‘Rock’ solid determination