Mumbai: Under fire from the opposition over delay in financial aid to farmers for crops damaged by pests, the Maharashtra government is set to release Rs 1,100 crore for cultivators in the next few days, an official said.
Bijay Kumar, the principal secretary, agriculture, said on Sunday that a sum of Rs 1,100 crore will be released in the coming week to provide relief to the affected farmers. The details will be announced soon as April 30 and May 1 are government holidays and banks would not be functioning on those days, he said.
"The state government has prepared a detailed list of the beneficiary farmers and their bank accounts. The money will be disbursed into their accounts only," a senior official from the state relief and rehabilitation department said.
As per the state government's primary survey, the pink bollworm and other pests last year affected cotton crop on 34 lakh hectares of land as against the total cultivation on 43 lakh hectares.
Many of the areas in eastern parts of Vidarbha were affected by other pests which damaged the rice and other kharif crops.
This prompted the government to increase its coverage of compensation.