Maharashtra: Congress demands financial package for drought-hit farmers

MUMBAI: Stepping up pressure on the BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis government, the Maharashtra unit of the Congress said here today that it is "not serious" about tackling the drought situation.

Addressing a press conference, the Maharashtra state unit president of the Congress party Manikrao Thakre said that unless farmers are given an adequate financial package before the winter session, the Congress would not allow the state legislature to function.

The Congress has also plans to organise a "halla bol" protest on the first day of the legislature session on Devember 8 in Nagpur.

More than half of Maharashtra is reeling under drought like conditions, while growers of soyabean, paddy and cotton have been suffering due to insufficient rain and unseasonal rains.

"Our government had given a Rs 4,000-crore package to farmers affected by hailstorm. Even before the central team came, we had started disbursing financial aid," he said.

Criticising the BJP-led Maharashtra government, Thakre said it has not done anything except its ministers touring drought-affected areas.

Thakre demanded Rs 25,000 per hectare for farmers with dry farms or non-irrigated land and Rs 50,000 per hectare for farmers with irrigated land as well as growers of horticulture crops.

He said only Congress fights for farmers at a time when the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena and the Raju Shetti-led Shetkari Sanghtana are quiet.

He said that a meeting of the Congress party's Vidarbha office bearers and leaders has been convened on November 29, while the Aurangabad meeting would be held on November 30.