931 more Maharashtra villages may be declared drought-hit

Considering the acute water shortage and low crop produce, the state government on Thursday decided to declare 931 more villages in Maharashtra drought-hit, in addition to the 151 tehsils where relief work has already begun.

The villages are located in 50 revenue circles in eight districts — Dhule, Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Parbhani, Jalna, Osmanabad, Satara and Buldhana. The cabinet sub-committee’s decision brings the total number of revenue circles affected by drought to 318. Each revenue circle comprises 30-40 villages.

State relief and rehabilitation minister Chandrakant Patil said, “These villages got less than 75% of the average rainfall or a crop produce less than 50% of the estimate. Relief measures will begin with immediate effect.”

Maharashtra is currently reeling under drought and the situation is likely to worsen with the advancement of summer. In November, the state had declared drought in 151 tehsils, in accordance with the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) norms. Opposition and farmers’ organisations had created a ruckus, claiming affected villages were left out of the list.

The state had then said it would reconsider its decision. While the expenses for drought mitigation in the 151 tehsils will be borne by the Centre, the state will have to provide assistance to the 318 revenue circles.

Around 60% or 85.76 lakh hectares of the total cultivable land in the state has been hit by drought, affecting 82.27 lakh farmers.

The state has sought financial assistance of ₹7,961 crore from the Centre, of which ₹7,103 crore is for damages to crops, ₹535 crore for providing fodder and ₹323 crore for water supply. The farmers who work on non-irrigated land will get a compensation of ₹6,800 a hectare for up to two hectares. In case of irrigated land, they are entitled to a compensation of ₹13,500 a hectare, while for horticulture crops the farmers will get ₹18,000 for a hectare up to two hectares, according to NDRF norms.

The previous drought in 2016 had mainly hit Marathawada and Vidarbha regions. This time, the 26 affected districts are spread across the state –Vidarbha, Marathwada, north and west Maharashtra and the Konkan region. The districts found affected with natural calamity are Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Nanded, Latur, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Jalgaon ,Nashik, Nandurbar, Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim,Wardha, Chandrapur, Nagpur, Pune, Sangli, Satara, Solapur.

First Published: Jan 04, 2019 01:19 IST