Eknath Khadse: Will take loan to compensate rain-hit farmers

The state's minister for agriculture, Eknath Khadse, has assured the rain-hit farmers that although the state has not announced an aid package, the government would compensate them.

"We would not hesitate to take a loan to help the farmers who lost their crops in the rains," said Khadse.

The cash-strapped government is still devising ways to compensate those who lost their crops because of drought and hailstorms in the past couple of months.

The state government's expenditure on relief packages for farmers could touch Rs13,000 crore in the financial year 2014-15. Of this, Rs4,000 crore has come from the Union government. The rest is from the state's own coffers.