Nearly 72 lakh farmers will be provided advance payment, state agriculture minister Dattatray Bharne said
Pune : State agriculture minister Dattatray Bharne on Thursday said more than 1.4 crore hectares of land in the state had been affected by drought and as the panchnama process had been completed in 304 tehsils, he assured farmers that the financial aid will soon be released to provide relief to them. “We have already included 304 tehsils in the trigger one and two as the drought affected areas. “The Panchnama in total 37,496 villages has already been completed. The state govt has taken a decision of giving Rs 5,000 per farmer as an advance ahead of Diwali festival and Bharne said that the govt will ensure that the festival is not affected by drought. Nearly 72 lakh farmers will be provided the advance payment,” he said.
As per the latest record, a total of 1 crore 41 lakh 53,000 hectares of the area in the state has been affected due to drought.
Some more tehsils including Maval, Mulshi from Pune district will be included and the Panchnama process will start soon in those tehsils as well,” he said. The agriculture minister said that the process of Panchanma has been completed in most parts of the drought affected areas. The panchnama process of the newly included tehsils also will be completed on war footing,” Bharne said.
Bharne was in Pune where he spoke on the drought conditions and the measures being taken by the state govt to tackle the challenging situation. “The state has already started disbursing the amount of advance payment to farmers’ accounts. The financial aid by both the state and the centre will soon follow.
Reacting to the question on differences within NCP’s top brass, Bharne said, “The speculations are wrong. Bharne downplayed the issue of internal tussle going on within NCP. All the decisions are taken collectively after discussion within the core committee meeting. Since it is a political party, some differences of opinions crop up but it does not mean that there is a rift in the party.”