The Maharashtra government will register police cases against officials and recovery agents of finance companies found harassing farmers for loan repayments during the current drought, Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on Tuesday. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis issued the directive after an incident in Nanded, Rural Voice reported.
Bawankule spoke after a meeting of the state cabinet's drought relief sub-committee, which he heads. He set out measures for farmers and rural communities in 304 drought-affected talukas.
District collectors will supervise the procurement and cultivation of fodder. Under a revised standard operating procedure, dry fodder will be supplied at Rs 12 a kilogram and green fodder at Rs 8 a kilogram. A five-member committee led by each collector will buy fodder, arrange local cultivation and bring it in from other districts. Fodder will also be grown on forest, revenue and water resources department land with District Planning Committee funds, and surplus fodder from Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri will be moved to drought areas.
The state will pay farmers to desilt lakes and dams and carry the silt to their fields: Rs 31 a cubic metre for desilting and Rs 35 a cubic metre for transport. Royalty will be waived on soil, murum and gravel taken from lakes for road building.
Demands have come in to add Haveli, Maval and Mulshi in Pune district, Hatkanangale in Kolhapur and parts of the Konkan to the drought list. Bawankule said a decision would be taken at next Tuesday's meeting, once collectors report on conditions on the ground. District Planning Committee funds will also be used to restart rural drinking water schemes that stopped because of unpaid electricity bills or missing power connections.
The measures follow the state's approval of a Rs 5,000 advance payment for about 1.5 crore drought-hit farmers.
Photo: Suhasajgaonkar (drought in Marathwada) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Rural Voice
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