The Maharashtra government on Friday announced a Rs 10,000-crore package for farmers in the flood-affected areas of the state, the Chief Minister’s Office said in a tweet. The decision was taken following a review meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Of the total package, Rs 5,500 crore has been earmarked towards relief to farmers for their crop loss, Rs 2,365 crore for damages to roads and bridges and Rs 1,000 crore for destruction of rural roads and disruption in water supply, Hindustan Times reported. Allocations have also been made for schemes related to urban areas, energy and resource schemes.
Thackeray also attacked the central government for delay in the release of Rs 38,000 crore due to the state as compensation towards the Goods and Services Tax. He said that his government would have announced a bigger package if not for the financial constraints owing to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
On October 15, the Centre decided to borrow Rs 1.1 lakh crore through a special window to meet the shortfall in GST compensation to states.
Earlier this month, heavy rains and floods claimed at least 48 lives in Pune, Aurangabad and Konkan divisions of the state, while crops on lakhs of hectares were damaged. As per official information, till October 16, as many as 40,036 people were shifted to safer places in four districts, including over 32,500 in Solapur and over 6,000 in Pune, according to PTI.
Last week, Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar visited the flood-affected areas. Pawar had said that the state government would require financial assistance from the Centre to help those affected by the floods. He had also spoken about leading a delegation of MPs to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter.
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