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A farmers’ organisation in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region has demanded a ₹30,000 crore development package from the upcoming Union Budget.
In view of the plight of the farmers, it was high time that the central government looks at agrarian crisis seriously in Vidarbha and announces a hefty development package, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishore Tiwari said in a statement on Monay.
VJAS, an advocacy group for farmers, said it has demanded the package as it would take care of the huge backlog for the region, help sustainable crop promotion, support mega micro irrigation schemes and other infrastructure development in the region. The group has also urged the government to constitute a national-level Commission that would look into measures to prevent farmer suicides.
The UPA government at the Centre and the ruling Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra have spent over ₹5,000 crore towards the irrigation backlog in the past six years, he said.
Since 2006, the state government has announced two separate packages worth ₹5,825 crore. This was followed by a loan waiver of ₹4,600 crore from the Union government and ₹1,100 crore in 2009 by the State government, added Tiwari.
“Yet, suicides have not stopped and the region continues to be backward and the sentiments are strongly in favour of a separate state of Vidarbha,” Tiwari pointed out.
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