CM Fadnavis seeks Rs 8000 crore for drought assistance

Mumbai: The state government has sought an assistance of nearly Rs 8000 crore from the Centre to tackle the drought situation in the state.

In New Delhi, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis called on Nrupendra Mishra, the principal secretary to the Prime Minister, and submitted the proposal asking for emergency assistance of Rs 7962 crore from the Centre to provide relief to drought affected areas in the state.

“During the meeting, Mr Fadnavis expressed concerns over severity of the drought and sought early assistance. Mr Mishra assured him of taking quick action,” stated officials from the chief minister’s office in a press release.

According to officials from relief and rehabilitation department, Maharashtra is facing severe drought with 151 talukas already declared drought-affected. This year, the state witnessed drou-ght conditions worse th-an that of the year 1972.

Three panels of the Centre have been on a visit in the state to study the drought situation. They would soon submit a report on the state’s drought situation to the Centre.

The officials of the central teams on Friday held a meeting with revenue minister Chandrakant Patil and other officials. Mr Patil said that there have been demands to declare other areas of the state as drought-affected. A decision will be soon taken about this within couple of days, he added.

“As of today, 98 lakh metric tonnes of fodder is available. The state has promoted to cultivate fodder on 50,000 hectare land. We are expecting additional 25 lakh metric tonnes of production of fodder from this land which is expected to be more than sufficient for the cattle till next monsoon,” Mr Patil added.

Mr Patil also said that the state has demanded an assistance of Rs 85 crore to provide additional work of 50 days to the needy people in drought affected areas through The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA).

During a meeting with PMO officials, Mr Fadnavis also demanded that an additional target of six lakh houses be allotted to Maharashtra under Prime Minister Awaas Yojana (PMAY-rural) as the state government has provided up to Rs 50,000 for land purchase of up to 500 square feet and also made land available for PMAY beneficiaries.

The state had recently handed over keys of hou-ses to over 25 lakh rural beneficiaries in presence of the PM in Shirdi in October this year.