Maharashtra: Congress to check if BJP govt carried out drought relief

The state Congress Party has decided to do check if the BJP-led government has taken drought relief measures by visiting the drought-affected regions in Maharashtra.

Ashok Chavan, president of the state Congress Party, said that they have formed six teams of Congress leaders. "These teams will include Congress leaders from various regions in the state. They will visit Marathwada, Vidarbha, North Maharashtra, Western Maharashtra and so on and take stock of the many schemes and measures of the government. They will see whether enough fodder and water has been provided to fodder camps or not. That apart, they will check if government's farm loan scheme has been carried out and whether the farmers have received crop insurance or not. We will thoroughly check the situation and then, prepare a report. The report will be submitted to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and to the governor as well," Chavan said.

Chavan added that they have been receiving a lot of complaints from farmers and locals."There has been significant corruption in fodder camps. A report was shown by a BJP leader with bogus numbers of animals to avail maximum subsidy and benefits for fodder camps. The matter needs to be probed. Also, most of the government schemes are only on paper," Chavan said.

Vijay Wadettiwar, Congress MLA who is heading the one of the Congress team for Vidarbha region said that the without the consent of the farmers, banks are keeping the farmers crop loan insurance amount. "They have been deducting the crop insurance amount from the crop loan amount without consent of the farmers. This is the complete violation of the Reserved Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. If the crop insurance money is taken away then how farmers will survive in drought period. They do not have work to their hand. Government should conduct the fair inquiry and do the justice to farmers," said Wadettiwar.

While NCP chief Sharad Pawar has been also touring the drought affected region. Last week, Pawar had visited the western Maharashtra while this week, he is in Marathwada. Pawar said that the government should start the relief to drought affected areas on war footing.