* 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)
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