Sudden rainfall over the past few weeks may have caught Maharashtra farmers off guard but BJP led Maharashtra government’s maiden finance budget may bring cheer to farmers.
The much-anticipated first budget of the BJP-Shiv Sena-led alliance government was rural centric as it emphasized on accelerating the development of rural infrastructure and tackling state’s agrarian crisis.
The budget has aimed to address the issue of indebted farmers, increasing number of farmer’s suicidal cases and remove disparity in rural and urban Maharashtra.
According to Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, state has decided to provide relief packages and relief measures to the farmers who are under constant threat due to drought, hailstorm and unseasonal rainfall in parts of Maharashtra. He said, “To make farmers debt-free, the state has decided to repay loans worth Rs 156 crore taken by 2.23 lakh farmers from private money lenders. The state will also repay interest worth Rs 15 crore on the loans.”
The recent hailstorm and unseasonal rain has affected crops like onion, mangoes, grapes in Nashik, Amravati and Yeotmal areas in Maharashtra which also led to farmers’ suicides. Concerned about the situation, the FM has proposed Rs 4,000-crore relief package for the farmers affected by drought, hailstorm and unseasonal rains. Farmer loans of almost Rs171-crore may also be waived off by the state.
Agricultural schemes are on high priority as the government has decided to allocate more than Rs 10,000 crore for the completion of irrigation projects and other agriculture schemes.
Budget also aimed to address the issue of power cuts that does not enable a seamless irrigation by using water pumps. The budget has sought to install more than 7,000 solar agricultural pump sets.
