Provide Rs 30,000 crore to affected farmers: Shiv Sena

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has demanded that farmers affected by unseasonal rains be provided a relief package of Rs 30,000 crore.

Farmers in the state need to be saved at any cost, the party said.

In an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana, the party termed the '10,000 crore aid announced by the state government to farmers as “inadequate”.

“The already announced amount of '10,000 crore is inadequate. Farmers should have been provided an assistance of '25,000 crore to '30,000 crore,”the party said.

As per initial data, crops on 54.22 lakh hectares across 325 talukas in the state have been damaged.

The Sena editorial said that those dependent on agriculture are suffering due to untimely rains, even as the county is already facing an economic slowdown, resulting in lakhs of people losing their jobs.

“Farmers should not be pushed to face the existential crisis due to the unseasonal rains in Maharashtra, which is incidentally also going through political complexity. The government's priority should be to extend assistance to the cultivators,” the party said.

“The woes of the cultivators should be addressed. Whatever may be the form of the current government in the state, it should offer '25,000 per hectare to the affected farmers," the editorial said.

The editorial noted that farmers have nowhere to go as major crops like soya bean, grapes, cotton and sugarcane have been severely affected, and added that horticulture and floriculture have suffered a setback due to untimely rain last month. The Sena cited the case of Dharma Jadhav who recently committed suicide after unseasonal rains.