Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nov 30 (IANS): Maharashtra Minister Abdul Sattar has urged the district officials to make the ‘panchnama’ suffered by agriculturists objectively and not to discriminate on the basis of the caste of the farmers, here on Thursday.
He has called upon the officials to ensure that no farmer - who has suffered crop losses in the recent bout of unseasonal rains - is left out of the ‘panchanama’ process.
Sattar also pointed out that the officials must keep in mind that the victims are farmers first rather than dwelling on their caste, religion, political affiliations, etc.
The unseasonal rains, strong winds and hailstorms in the past week have ravaged cash crops, cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits in more than 1.20 lakh hectares of farmlands across more than 15 districts, sparking a political furore.
The Minister assured affected farmers that the government is standing solidly behind them, and they will be given compensation after the ‘panchnamas’ process is completed.
Sattar added that the compensation will be given as per the NDRF norms after the district authorities, along with the revenue and agriculture departments submit their report on the crop damage assessment in the next couple of days.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday directed the officials to take up the ‘panchnama’ process and compensation on a ‘war-footing’ to give relief to the tillers.
The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) top leaders of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) including Nana Patole, Jayant Patil, ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray, Leaders of Opposition in the Assembly and Council Vijay Wadettiwar and Ambadas Danve, respectively, plus others have slammed the government for the delays in extending aid to the beleaguered farmers across the state who have suffered a doublewhammy of natural calamities this year.
They said first the drought-like situation which damaged the Kharif season crops, followed by the unseasonal downpour that hit the Rabi season crops that wreaked havoc in the farmlands and now some are ready to sell off their body organs to repay agricultural loans.