Maha govt to pay Rs 1,700 crore to 30K scarcity-hit villages

Maharashtra government has decided to pay Rs 1,700 crore as relief assistance to 30,000 villages that had lost their crops in kharif and rabi season due to scarcity of water in 2015, state minister Chandrakant Patil said today.
Patil, Minister for Revenue and Public Works department, said the relief assistance will be provided through government's relief and rehabilitation department to the farmers, predominantly from Vidarbha, Marathwada and north Maharashtra.
"The most affected crops were cotton and soyabean. The state government has also decided that the minimum amount of state's assistance would be Rs 500 to each farmer. If it puts additional burden on the state coffers, it will be borne," Patil told PTI.

Commenting over the reasons behind the extension of the assistance, Patil said, "The assistance of around Rs 600 crore was already announced for farmers from Marathwada region. Later, there was a PIL filed in Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court. The HC directed the state to cover farmers from Vidarbha too in its financial assistance."
"The state government thus included the farmers from other regions and cumulative amount of assistance swelled to Rs 1,700 crore," said the Minister.