Fadnavis hits out at Maharashtra govt over crop damage assessment

Senior BJP leader Devendra

Fadnavis on Tuesday said the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra was disinterested in helping farmers who had suffered crop loss due to heavy rains a few days ago.

In a letter to Thackeray, the leader of opposition and former CM said farmers had suffered heavy losses in Vidarbha and Marathwada but the state was not checking if damage assessment was being done "seriously and carefully".

He said crops like soybean, cotton, sugarcane, onions etc had been damaged in 1,800 villages, with the loss of produce being over 70 per cent in some tehsils.

Moon (green gram) and urad (black gram) cultivation has been severely hit in Marathwada due to the rains, he said in the letter.

"The state government has given orders to assess crop damage but there is no check on whether the assessment is being done seriously and carefully," he alleged.