Maha: Cong demands complete loan waiver for flood-hit farmers

The Congress on Wednesday sought a complete loan waiver for farmers affected by floods in Maharashtra and demanded that the state government provide them an assistance of Rs 60,000 per hectare of crop damage.

A delegation of state Congress leaders met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis here to discuss the flood situation.

They demanded that the government ensure fresh loans to farmers and provide them compensation for the death of their livestock and repairs of houses, the Congress said in a statement issued here.

They also asked the government to provide farmers an assistance of Rs 60,000 per hectare of crop damage, it said.

The delegation comprised state Congress president Balasaheb Thorat, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar and other party leaders.

When contacted, senior state Congress leader Naseem Khan, who was part of the delegation, said the chief minister informed them about the assistance that he will be seeking from the Centre and the steps being taken by his government.

"He said he would look into our demands positively," Khan added.

On Tuesday, Fadnavis said his government will seek an assistance of Rs 6,813 crore from the Centre - Rs 4,708 crore Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Rs 2,105 crore for Konkan, Nashik and rest of Maharashtra - in view of the floods following heavy rains in several parts of the state.

"A memorandum for this assistance will be sent to the Centre, but till then the Maharashtra Cabinet has approved to spend the amount from the state corpus," he said.

Fadnavis also said a cabinet sub-committee headed by him will discuss changing rules for rescue, relief and rehabilitation, while an expert committee will be appointed to suggest an action plan in case of excessive rainfall, like 700 per cent in four days (that parts of western Maharashtra witnessed recently).