Maharashtra: Rs 4 lakh for farmer families who died while spraying pesticides

After many farmers died while spraying pesticide in various parts of Maharashtra, the state government has made a policy to help such victim families by extending an aid of Rs 4 lakh.

According to the state revenue department, they had approved the policy and issued the notification on July 19. "Earlier there was no policy to aid farmers who had died while spraying the pesticides. The government earlier had a policy to extend monetary help to the victim families who had died in the terrorist attack. This was subsequently amended and an addition was made to help victim families of Naxal attacks. Now, the new amendment is to help the farmers who died while spraying pesticides. This same aid will be extended to the victim's families who had lost their lives in the religious gathering and social function stampede. Besides, it will be given to the people who lost the lives in building collapse incident. However, the residents of these dilapidated buildings should not have been given the eviction notice by the authority," stated the notification. DNA has the copy of the notifications.

A senior government official said that they face the huge problem while extending the aid to the victims families. "Most of the cases get quagmire into the administrative approvals. And, the victims families end up getting nothing. Therefore, on government level, it was decided to have the policy so that the deceased's families can get financial help on time," he said requesting anonymity.

As per the policy, if the person has died in the accident, then the victim family will get the aid of Rs 4 lakh. "If he/she had met with the accident and lost eye, leg, hand or any organ making them permanently disabled, then as per the percentage of injury, the financial help will be extended between Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh. Smaller injuries will get financial aid to recover," he further added.