Describing the drought situation as “extremely serious”, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has decided to send a revised memorandum to the Centre including 5,700 more villages to the initial tally of around 19,000 villages.
The Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra are facing drought – and the government had earlier sought a relief of Rs 4,000 crore from the Centre, while announcing a package of Rs 7,000 crore.
Even while the two regions face an agrarian crisis, the recent unseasonal rains and hailstorm in Khandesh and unseasonal rains in Konkan region have compounded the problems.
“The situation is extremely serious. We had initially sent a proposal of relief for around 19,000 villages. However, we are adding 5,700 more villages, taking the total to around 24,700 villages,” Fadnavis told reporters in the Vidhan Bhavan complex in Nagpur after a meeting with the Inter-Ministerial Central Team, which visited various parts of Vidarbha and Marathwada regions.
“The team had visited some of the places and has agreed to our proposal to include more villages,” he said, adding that once we send the revised memorandum, it would be placed before the high-level committee and then the package would be announced.
According to the chief minister, the state is looking at providing drinking water to the affected villages, fodder through the NDRF and providing food grains through public distribution system mechanism.
Published 17 December 2014, 18:42 IST