Maharashtra government to close down defunct Land Development Banks

MUMBAI: Maharashtra government today decided to shut down the defunct Land Development Banks (LDBs) in the state and acquire their properties.

"The government has decided to accept a report from a committee which was constituted by the previous government to take decision on the defunct LDBs with accumulated losses of Rs 2,800 crore," Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting.

"Accordingly, the LDB properties to the tune of over Rs 500 crore will be acquired and the government will take a call on whether to dispose of the properties or utilise them for government purpose, at a later stage," he added.

The compensation for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for the 1,046 employees of these LDBs, has been increased by 2.5 times, which amounts to Rs 70.12 crore, he said.

The government also decided to provide procurement incentive support of Rs 250 per quintal to paddy growers.

"The amount of Rs 250 per quintal as procurement incentive support price will be directly deposited in the bank accounts of farmers," Fadnavis said.

Similarly, the cabinet also approved the proposal to provide export subsidy of Rs 1,000 per metric tonne for raw sugar.

"This will be in addition to Rs 4,000 per metric tonnes announced by the Centre," Fadnavis added.

According to him, so far eight to ten lakh metric tonnes of raw sugar has been exported. "Evacuation of sugar is important to prevent hoarding," he said.

When asked about the farmers' suicides, Fadnavis said bottomline surveys for interventions in the suicide prone districts of Yavatmal and Osmanabad have been completed.

"IAS officials have been appointed as guardian secretaries for these districts as all the welfare schemes for farmers hit by agrarian crisis need leadership to see that they reach the beneficiaries," he said.