Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
Excessive rainfall has caused massive damage to Kharif crops in the district. MLA Rohit Pawar of the Nationali Congress Party on Wednesday demanded that farmers be given complete loan waivers, that the hailstorm be officially declared a drought, and that farmers receive assistance of Rs 50,000 per hectare.
A delegation led by Pawar met district collector Deelip Swami and discussed the matter. They submitted a memorandum to the administration, urging immediate assessment of crop losses and compensation for affected farmers. The memorandum also included demands for a formal declaration of the hailstorm as a drought and district-wide loan waivers.
Collector Swami said assessments of crop losses are currently underway. Present at the meeting were Pandurang Tayde Patil, Khwaja Sharfoddin, Vishwajeet Chavan, Ashish Pawar, Sushil Borde, Rajesh More, Sanjay Waghchaure, Ashok Khosre, and others. Rohit Pawar added: “There is no provision to declare a hailstorm as drought, and it has never been declared so before. But rainfall this year is unprecedented. The chief minister should declare it as drought so that at least students can get fee waivers.”