.story-content span .story-content p .story-content div color:#000!important;font-family: open sans Arial!important;font-size:15px!important ALSO READ Pest attack lowers cotton yield in Maharashtra Cotton price improves on reports of crop damage Cotton spinners pin hopes on demand uptick to improve margins Govt puts GM mustard approval on hold Spinning mills margins to recover in Q3 on bumper cotton output span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 More than 30 000 farmers from all over Maharashtra on a long march sicnce March 5 from Nashik an agricultural powerhouse 170 km north of Mumbai will reach the state s legislative Assembly on Monday. Leaders in the protest rally allege their demands for clearing farmers balance sheets ensuring remunerative prices for crops and implementing the Forest Rights Act for the benefit of scheduled tribes have not been done entirely. An 8 per cent contraction in agriculture (worse the crop sub-sector contracted 14 per cent) according to the latest economic survey by the state worsens the situation. The western state received 84 per cent of the average rainfall during the June to October period in the 2017 season with regional variations. The deficit in the drought-prone Vidarbha region was above 20 per cent. On top of that increased pest attacks affected standing cotton crops according to the economic survey. The state witnessed record foodgrain and cotton production in 2016-17 registering 22 per cent growth in the agriculture sector followed by a contraction in the current year. The pattern resembles the one in 2013-14 and 2014-15 when agriculture sector growth of 12.3 per cent was followed by a contraction of 10.7 per cent in the latter year. The central government s resolution on doubling farmers incomes requires 10 per cent consistent growth in the agriculture sector of major agrarian states according to its own report. In addition leaders of the rally allege lending to the farm sector (both kharif and rabi) in the state has gone down from Rs 430 billion in 2016-17 to Rs 220 billion in 2017-18. Source: Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2017-18 Banks refrained from giving loans to farmers this season due to poor implementation of the loan waiver scheme. As a result farmers had little money to sow and cultivate Raju Shetti Member of Parliament and a farmer leader from southern Maharashtra who opted out of the National Democratic Alliance in the middle of its term told Business Standard. Of the Rs 340-billion loan waiver package announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in June 2017 only Rs 138 billion was disbursed till March 6 2017 according to the Budget. The scheme known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana has reached 3.6 million farmers against the intended 8.9 million. Minister of state for agriculture Sadabhau Khot did not confirm the numbers but attributed the potential shortfall to political vendetta by opposition parties which control most cooperative banks in the state. Maharashtra s loan waiver scheme has given the maximum return to the eligible farmer among all states that have waived loans. We have taken utmost care that nationalised banks lend to the farm sector Khot told Business Standard. Source: Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2017-18 This year in addition to a serious rain deficit in Vidarbha the cotton crop was subject to an unprecedented attack of the pink bollworm. The pest attacked irrigated cotton fields more harshly than the rain-fed ones and the genetically modified crop suffered more damage said Prashant Gawande a farmer leader from Akola district who is participating in the protest march. He said the GM variety had failed in its rationale of protecting the crop from pest attacks. Though the rally reportedly bears flags of the Communist Party of India many participating farmer leaders said no specific party was leading it. The state government issued a resolution on February 23 that promised compensation of Rs 13 500 per hectare to a maximum of 2 hectares to only those cotton and paddy farmers who have incurred more than 33 per cent of crop loss. This has irked a majority of the farmers since the GM variety adds to the cost of cultivation. Source: Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2017-18 The government might increase the scope of compensation possibly to all farmers to assuage the growing discontent according to sources. This is the second major farmer protest in two years. On the contrary another set of data does not paint such a gloomy picture. The crop is fetching around Rs 4 500 per quintal in mandis across Maharashtra above the minimum support price. Arrivals in state mandis from November till date is around 874 000 tonnes not very less than 969 000 tonnes during 2016-17 the bumper crop year. While production of cotton and tur (red gram or arhar) has almost halved compared to the previous year soyabean and paddy have declined 15-20 per cent according to the economic survey. Cotton is the most preferred kharif crop in Maharashtra. It was sown on 4.2 million hectares in 2017 almost a third of the total kharif crop area of 15 million hectares across the state. The state s economic survey 2017-18 puts cotton production at 6 million bales down from record 10.8 million bales in 2016-17 and the worst in a decade. The yield of cotton has fallen to 244 kilograms per hectare. However previous economic surveys put the yield of 2014-15 and 2015-16 the infamous drought years at 150 kilograms per hectare and cotton production at below 4 million bales worse than this year. The Maharashtra state budget has allocated around Rs 80 billion towards irrigation and Rs 15 billion to the Jalyukt Shivar (irrigated farmlands) scheme. State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantivar has proposed 25 per cent assistance to install grain segregator machines at state agriculture markets to separate fair average quality grains from below average ones. The state s overall debt situation worsened with accumulated debt rising from Rs 4 trillion to Rs 4.6 trillion. Salaries and interest payments now account for 57 per cent of the state s revenue expenditure.
MUMBAI: In the light of the ongoing farmers protest in Maharashtra the state government has decided to appoint a six members committee to look into the farmers demands. The decision was taken during a high-level meeting held at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis residence informed a Chief Ministers Officers source. The committee will comprise of Maharashtra Minister Chandrakant Patil Agriculture Minister Pandurang Fundkar Irrigation Minister Girish Mahajan Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Savara state cooperatives minister Subhash Deshmukh and Shiv Sena leader and PWD Minister Eknath Shinde. The Government has also anticipated cooperation from the participants of the march for a smooth functioning of the traffic on March 12 as it is Monday and exams of the 12th and 10th board are also scheduled for the day. As per information the total number of the people participating in the march is not more than 7 000. Out of which only 450-500 are farmers rest are tribals who are participating in the march for their demands. The Maharashtra Government has also directed all its machinery to be positive and sympathetic towards protesters. Earlier on Sunday all India Kisan Sabha s protest march reached Mumbai after walking with blistered feet for about 180 km in the sun over the last five days. The protest which is held to demand a complete farm loan waiver among other things commenced on March 5 from the CBS Chowk in Central Nashik. The farmers will protest outside the state Assembly in Mumbai today. Earlier on Sunday Shiv Sena s Aditya Thackeray also interacted with the farmers protesting in Mumbai. Leaders from opposition parties have also extended their support to the farmers. The farmers of the state have been demanding a complete waiver of loans and electricity bills. Last year the Maharashtra government had announced a loan waiver of Rs 4 000 crore under the first phase of the farm loan waiver scheme. They are protesting against the Maharashtra government which had promised loan waiver for them in November 2018 after they had staged a long protest of over 10 days in the state.
The farmers march that began with 20 000 protesters six days ago have increased to 50 000Mumbai: The roads leading to Mumbai turned into a sea of red as thousands of farmers marched around 180 kilometres - from Nashik to Mumbai - over the last six days. Tribals and farmers joined the protest in large numbers along the way and according to the organisers their numbers have increased from around 20 000 when they started six days ago to 50 000 at present.Congress NCP Raj Thackeray s Maharashtra Navanirman Sena and Shiv Sena a part of the alliance ruling Maharashtra have come out in support of the farmers.The farmers plan to gherao the Maharashtra state assembly demanding complete loan waiver fair pay and transfer of adivasi land to farmers who have been tilling it for years. They also want to implement the Swaminathan Committee report which says farmers should be paid one-and-a-half times the cost of production and the Minimum Support Price should be fixed keeping this in mind.The protesting farmers camped at the KJ Somaiya Ground in central Mumbai s Sion started moving towards south Mumbai s Azad Maidan last night. They reached south Mumbai s Azad Maidan around 5am this morning. From here they will head to the state assembly which is around 2 km away. Here are the LIVE Updates of the Maharashtra farmers protest:Mar 12 201809:15 (IST) We will talk to them and sort out their issues. The government is positive on their demands. Most of the agitators are tribals and their main demand is forest land rights Mr Fadnavis told news agency PTI. We have set up a committee of ministers to hold discussions on their demands. I have invited them (farmer leaders) for talks. I have only made an appeal that they should not cause any problem to the traffic since it s an exam day and more than one lakh students will get affected Mr Fadnavis said.Mar 12 201809:13 (IST) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Sunday that his government will talk to the farmers who have undertaken a Long March to the city to press their various demands.No more content Comments
The Maharashtra government is using drones mounted with high resolution cameras to speed up the exercise of mapping villages and towns in the state. The government has launched a pilot project to survey these areas with the help of camera-fitted drones a revenue department official told PTI. Mapping was earlier carried out manually but the drone technology is now changing the way this massive exercise is undertaken. Once extended to other areas and completed the process is also expected to boost revenue collection for the government. The project was launched in Sonori village in Purandar tehsil of Pune district. There are 43 000 gaothans (old settlements) in the state where exact information about government-owned land open areas and private properties is not available. It has caused inordinate delay in charing property tax drafting village or town-centric policy and implementing changes made in land utilisation reservation he said. Till date the state machinery used to do such surveys manually which used to be full of errors and time consuming the officer said. However deploying drones will drastically cut down on time and also bring more clarity in the exercise. Drones will capture the entire area in a few minutes and it can be downloaded on state provided software. It will help the revenue officials identify the open spaces government and private land and quickly match them with the available records. This procedure can complete the mapping of a town in 2-3 days which otherwise would have taken months the revenue official said. S Tripathi an officer of the Survey of India Deharadun came to Pune last week and held a meeting with District Collector Sourabh Rao and other officials for starting the pilot project. Under the project which commenced on March 5 a couple of villages has already been mapped the official said. The Survey of India works under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology. The biggest benefit of the survey is going to be in revenue collection. The existing database is not accurate hence there are several properties where no revenue tax is collected. Once such properties are identified the local government or the revenue department can start collecting tax he said. We have not estimated how much tax collection will go up but it will be significant for sure. Every year the revenue department comes up with special drives to find out non-tax paying properties and some amount is recovered. With modern and updated maps no one can evade revenue tax the official said.
NEW DELHI | BENGALURU: Business tycoon Rajeev Chandrasekhar former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane BJP media convenor Anil Baluni spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao and general secretaries Anil Jain and Saroj Pande figure in the list of 28 BJP nominees for Rajya Sabha announced on Sunday. Rane will contest from Maharashtra Chandrasekhar from Karnataka Baluni from Uttarakhand Pande from Chhattisgarh. Anil Jain Rao Ashok Bajpai Vijay Pal Singh Tomar Sakal Deep Rajbhar and Kanta Kardam from UP. Former BJP Kerala unit chief V Murlidharan will be in fray from Maharashtra. Sameer Uranv is the BJP candidate from Jharkhand Kailash Soni and Ajay Pratap Singh (both Madhya Pradesh) Kirori Lal Meena and Madan Lal Saini (both Rajasthan) and Lt Gen (retd) DP Vats from Haryana. Congresss too fielded journalist Kumar Ketkar as its candidate from Maharashtra. By fielding the three candidates L Hanumanthaiah Syed Nazeer Hussen and G C Chandrashekhar from Karnataka the party makes clear its intention to go for an extra seat from the state. While it persuaded Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to back party nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi it fielded Dhiraj Prasad Sahu from Jharkhand after ensuring ally JMM s backing. While OBC leader Rajmani Patel will enter RS from MP Congress fielded spokesperson Anee Yagnik and Naranbhai Rathwa from Gujarat ending the efforts for a ticket for Sam Pitroda. The Congress also fielded Parika Balaram Naik from Telenganawhere party has nil chance of bagging a RS seat.
Mumbai: Maharashtra finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Friday presented the state s budget for 2018-19. Other than focusing on agriculture Budget 2018-19 did not have any big-ticket announcements probably the result of the dire fiscal situation the state is in. The government may be keeping the powder dry for its last budget before the assembly elections next year. The state s debt is at Rs 4 06 811 crore for 2017-18 and is expected to reach Rs 4 61 807 crore by the next fiscal. The state is currently spending Rs 31 000 crore annually on interest payments which is likely to go up further. The revenue receipts will see an increase to Rs 2 85 968 crore up from Rs 2 57 605 crore in 2017-18. The revenue expenditure is expected to go up to Rs 3 01 343 crore from Rs 2 72 448 crore. The revenue deficit is pegged at Rs 15 375 crore for this fiscal while the fiscal deficit is at Rs 50 586 crore. The debt to GDP ratio is poised to increase further with budget estimates at 16.52% in 2018-19. The state is claiming its finances are better as the ratio is still much lower than that of the 22.2% limit prescribed by the 14th Finance Commission. There may be some additional burden on the state s resources as it has to also implement the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations. While Mungantiwar in his budget speech claimed that necessary provisions have been made for the same he didn t say how much burden the state would have to bear. In his speech Mungantiwar said he is allocating Rs 3 115.21 crore for irrigation projects like building farm ponds and wells under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). https://www.play.fm/d4int Under the scheme 26 projects would be provided with funds. The water resource department is being given Rs 8 233.13 crore while a special provision of Rs 1 500 crore has been proposed for the Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan. The state has earmarked Rs 432 crore for drip irrigation and a further Rs 160 crore to dig wells and farm ponds. An amount of Rs 100 crore was set aside by the state to encourage organic agriculture. A scheme to promote horticulture under the State EGS scheme has also been given Rs 100 crore. A new scheme called the Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme has been started in order to set up processing facilities for farm produce for which Rs 50 crore has been set aside. The state has decided to give electric connections to 93 322 agricultural pump sets which would cost it Rs 750 crore. The loss-making Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) which runs buses throughout the state will now be used to transfer freight. The state believes it would not only lead to a costeffective goods service that would benefit the farmers who can transport their produce economically and speedily but also help MSRTC reduce its losses. The state has also decided to set up a new Maharashtra International Education Board whose purpose is to monitor and provide quality education of international standards . Initially a total of 100 such schools will be set up in the state. In a bid to appease the Marathas the creamy layer limit has been increased for the Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj fee reimbursement scheme. The scheme was meant for the economically weaker sections who wanted to pursue vocational and higher educational courses. The eligibility criteria to avail the scheme has been raised to Rs 8 lakh family income from the previous limit of Rs 6 lakh.
