Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: Raju Sanadi
The Maharashtra Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on April 5, decided to consider unseasonal rains a natural calamity, to provide relief to affected farmers in the State.
The decision would help the administration to provide relief to farmers whose crops have been damaged due to untimely rain.
“We (Maharashtra government) are the first State in the country to consider unseasonal rains a natural calamity. A separate category was created for this. It was first announced by Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in his Budget speech, and was later proposed in the Cabinet,” an official at Chief Minister’s Office said.
He said that last year, the State government paid ₹755 crore to the farmers as compensation for the damage caused by incessant rains and hailstorms. Even last month, the State received unseasonal rains and hailstorms which damaged thousands of hectares of soybean, onions, mangoes and sweet lime crop, and the Opposition during the Assembly session demanded that the State government give immediate relief to the affected farmers.
“Continuous rains of 10 mm for a minimum of five days and losses of more than 33% will be eligible for aid. Due to this decision, farmers will not be deprived of assistance due to the lack of criteria,” Agriculture Minister Abdul Sattar said after the Cabinet meeting.
Further, the Shinde-Fadnavis government had also decided to end the practice of sand auctions and to approve a new sand policy in which sand would be made available at an affordable price.
The Cabinet also gave a revised approval for phase-II of Nagpur Metro in which a 43.8 km rail route and a project for electricity generation from the garbage in the Deonar dumping ground in Mumbai, would be initiated.
Earlier, the Cabinet condoled the death of Pune’s Lok Sabha MP Girish Bapat and the condolence motion was read out by Chief Secretary Manu Kumar Shrivastav, after which Ministers and bureaucrats present at the meeting stood in silence for two minutes.