Maharashtra: Rs 3,700 crore aid for tillers from Marathwada

AURANGABAD: The revised financial relief package announced by the ruling MVA government has increased the compensation for rain-hit farmers from eight districts of the Marathwada region to Rs 3,762.2 crore.
This is Rs 1,176.3 crore more than the earlier amount of Rs 2,585.9 crore worked out as per State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) norms.
S A Dharurkar, deputy secretary of the state revenue and forest department, announced the revised compensation through a Government Resolution recently.This means the compensation for damaged irrigated crops has increased from Rs 13,500 per hectare as stipulated in the SDRF norms to Rs 15,000 per hectare.
Similarly, compensation for damage to rain-fed agricultural land went up from Rs 6,800 per hectare to Rs 10,000 per hectare.
For orchards and perennial crops, the compensation has been raised from Rs 18,000 per hectare to Rs25,000 per hectare.
“The beneficiaries should be decided based on panchanamas of crop damage. The relief amount must be directly transferred into the registered bank accounts of these farmers,” Dharurkar said.
The revised financial assistance is expected to benefit 47.7 lakh affected farmers.
Beed district is scheduled to get maximum Rs 669.8 crore relief aid for farmers, followed by Nanded (Rs 567.1 crore), Aurangabad (Rs 555.4 crore), Jalna (Rs 566.8 crore), Latur (Rs 448.7 crore), Parbhani (Rs 340.2 crore), Osmanabad (Rs 316.8 crore) and Hingoli (Rs 297.2 crore), an official said.