Sharad Pawar urges Centre to help Maharashtra farmers affected by retreating showers

@the_news_21

Pune: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday argued that while the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government would do everything in power to help farmers, the Centre must step in to help farmers affected by the retreating monsoon showers. Heavy retreating monsoon showers have continued to batter Maharashtra and destroyed crops.

The NCP chief who began his two-day tour of the rain-hit districts in the Marathwada region said that he, along with other MPs from Maharashtra, would be going to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and seek financial assistance for the afflicted farmers.

“Crops have suffered severe damage as a result of the excess rains. While sugarcane, paddy, tur, soybean crops have been destroyed, in some cases, the top soil has been washed away. It is not possible for farmers to recoup losses of such magnitude in a short time. So, while the State government is firmly behind the farmers in this grave hour, there are some limitations to the assistance it can give,” said Sharad Pawar while addressing a gathering in Osmanabad district.

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The former union Agriculture minister disclosed that he had talked to other MPs and all of them would be going to New Delhi in the next eight-ten days to meet the Prime Minister over the issue. “The solution to this crisis must be jointly found out by the State and the Centre,” said Pawar.

Earlier, Pawar met farmers in the worst-hit villages of Lohara tehsil of Osmanabad district during his on-field survey of damaged crops by incessant showers that have been pouring in Marathwada since the past week.

Consoling the farmers, the NCP chief, in a bid to boost their morale, reminded villagers of the destruction and loss of life suffered during the 1993 earthquake in Marathwada. Pawar remarked, “We got through that terrible crisis (September 1993 earthquake) and we will come through this present calamity as well”.

In the political rat-race to lend succor to farmers affected by the retreating monsoon showers, the 79-year-old Pawar stole the march over both Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, his coalition partner in the MVA as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis by beginning his tour before they could do so. Both Thackeray and Fadnavis commenced their respective tours in Solapur and Baramati (Pawar’s bastion) from Monday.

Pawar tour of Osmanabad district today is also noteworthy for the fact that exactly a year when he delivered a much-publicized, eye-catching pre-election speech in Satara amid downpour.

Visuals of the wily Maratha strongman’s speech amid the downpour was like shot-in-the-arm for the oppositions fight against the then ruling BJP in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, and did much to rally public opinion behind the NCP in the final results.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje Bhosale, too visited Osmanabad today. Speaking in Tamalwadi in Tuljapur, Sambhajiraje urged Chief Minister Thackeray to leave every other work and focus only on alleviating the plight of the farmers.

“Farmers are in dire straits as the rains have destroyed their Kharif crops. The Rabbi sowing season is in grave danger as well owing to the condition of their water-logged fields. I urge the State government to declare immediate cash benefits of Rs. 50,000 per hectare for every afflicted farmer. I will soon be meeting with Thackeray and submit a detailed report,” he said.

Authorities estimate that the retreating monsoon has destroyed more than seven lakh hectares of harvest-ready crops in districts in western Maharashtra and Marathwada, with Solapur in western Maharashtra and Osmanabad and Latur in Marathwada ranking as the worst-hit districts.