Maharashtra govt declares drought in 40 talukas

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday declared drought in 40 talukas hit by scanty rainfallThe government would urgently seek necessary assistance from the Centre even as the Relief and Rehabilitation Department has been directed to quickly decide on the appropriate relief for the affected areasThe decision to declare drought was taken at the state cabinet meeting based on the information provided by the Relief and Rehabilitation Department on the situation regarding the crop water situationDue to scanty rainfall drought has been declared in 40 talukas during the Kharif season by the state cabinet today Accordingly necessary assistance will be urgently requested from the Centre in view of the drought situation a statement saidThe Drought Management Code of 2016 was taken into consideration which included mandatory indicators and impact indicatorsChief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have also instructed the Relief and Rehabilitation Departments subcommittee to quickly decide on the appropriate relief for the affected talukas as per the statementMaharashtra received 134 per cent less rainfall this year and the Rabi sowing is also delayed So far only 12 per cent of the sowing has been done it saidThe government has also decided to provide assistance up to three hectares of land instead of two hectares to the victims of natural disasters as per the State Disaster Response Fund SDRF normsEvents like extreme rainfall and natural disasters caused agricultural losses from June to October this yearAs per SDRF norms instead of a twohectare limit aid will now be given up to three hectares The assistance which was restricted to farmers with small landholdings will now be available up to the threehectare limit to those who are not small landholding farmersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever