Pune, September 23 (IANS) former Union Agriculture Minister and NCP (SP) President Sharad Power on Tuesday urged the Maharashtra government to quickly take out ‘Panchnamas (Ground Assessment)’ and provide financial assistance to farmers after severe damage to crops, livestock and properties due to heavy rains and waterfalls in various districts.
Pawar’s demand occurs when kharif crops on more than 26 lakh hectares of farm land have been over across the state. Farmers, especially Solapur, Lataur, Dharshiv, Jalna, Parbhani and Ahilya Nagar have been badly killed.
“A district known for the drought received heavy rains, which have had a great impact on the farmers. Soybean is a reliable crop, but due to the waterfall, it has been rooted. The farmers are completely destroyed. I have seen the drought, but I have never seen such heavy rain before,” Power said.
“During such a crisis, it is the responsibility of the state and central governments to help the farmers. The state government will have to take immediate action to conduct the Panchnamas and compensate the farmers. The Center can also provide assistance to the states if a natural disaster is a natural disaster. The state should take help from a separate center by providing financial assistance from its kitty.”
He further said that the government needs to provide compensation for the loss of crops, cattle and the land which has been completely washed.
“If the crop is lost, there is only one disadvantage for that year. But if the soil is washed on the ground, the production of the crop stops forever. Therefore, help will be given for crops and also for damaged land due to waterlogging, the roads have been destroyed along with it. It works quickly,” he said.
Power called the state government to conduct the Panchnamas and take the farmers to confidence and inspect the damage to the crops. He reiterated that the government would have to provide immediate assistance to face the current crisis and to revive in future during such unprecedented circumstances. “We hope that the state government will consider it very seriously,” he said.
Pawar said that the Meteorological Department has predicted rain for the next four days. “The special feature of this time is that whatever the meteorological department says, it has been getting correct from the beginning. Rainfall in the month of May. Usually, there is no rain at that time. Since then, the Meteorological Department has warned the farmers, the government should pay attention to it and work accordingly,” he suggested. Meanwhile, Chorus is growing to announce ‘wet drought’ in the state.
Congress MLAs Vijay Wadatiwar and Amit Deshmukh, and NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar have demanded that the government should immediately announce wet drought and provide assistance to the farmers who are in crisis.
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