Rs 33.46 cr aid for drought-hit farmers in Nagpur district
| Date :11-Jul-2019 |
Staff Reporter:
State Government, on Wednesday, released an aid of Rs 33.46 crore for drought-affected farmers in Nagpur district. Mainly, the aid is for growers of orange and other multi-year crops. Also, the Government released aid of Rs 390 crore for for eight districts in Aurangabad Division. Revenue and Forest Department had declared drought in 151 tehsils in Maharashtra in October 2018, owing to deficient and irregular rainfall. Thousands of farmers were affected due to drought and had incurred crop loss. In January 2019, the Government decided to extend financial assistance to the affected farmers. Accordingly, the funds were distributed to all the districts in three phases.
At that time, the administration had reported that there was ‘nil’ loss of multi-year crops including Orange in Katol, Narkhed, and Kalmeshwar tehsils of Nagpur district. This met with protests and many leaders demanded that proper survey be conducted to assess the damage caused to Orange and other such crops. Following the assessment, it came to fore that multi-year crops in 18,591 hectares in Katol, Narkhed, and Kalmeshwar tehsils had suffered heavy damage.
Accordingly, district administration moved a request to Revenue and Forest Department for release of financial aid to be distributed to affected farmers. A proposal in this regard was placed before the Cabinet Sub-Committee in its meeting held on June 28, 2019. After the approval of the sub-committee, the department has now released Rs 33,46,38,000/- to be distributed as aid to drought-affected farmers in Katol, Narkhed, and Kalmeshwar tehsils of Nagpur district. At the same time, the Government has released Rs 390.25 crore for eight districts of Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded, Parbhani, and Hingoli in Aurangabad Division.