Government in favour of three times compensation to farmers

Aurangabad, Sept 26: The government has shown its willingness to compensate the farmers affected in the last five years by natural calamities three times more than before. Hence a bench of Justices S V Gangapurwala and R G Avchat disposed of the PIL on September 23. The bench disposed of the petition on the affidavit of the government stating that it is implementing the government decision dated August 29, 2019 regarding three times more compensation to farmers affected between 2015 to 2020.

Sheikh Chand Sheikh Badshah Inamdar, president of Mauli Baliraja Social Foundation, a Beed-based organization working for the welfare of farmers, had filed a PIL in the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court through advocate Pratap Praveen Mandlik. As mentioned in the petition, the Government of Maharashtra had issued a government resolution on May 13, 2015 regarding the rates and criteria for compensation to be paid to eligible farmers affected by natural calamities between 2015 and 2020. The compensation rates were Rs 6,800 per hectare for dryland crops, Rs 13,500 per hectare for area under assured irrigation scheme and Rs 18,000 per hectare for round the year crops. After that, the government had published the second ruling on August 29, 2019, in which it was mentioned that the compensation will be three times as much as the ruling of 2015. But the government did not implement the decision. Therefore, the government should implement the ruling of 2019. The Mauli Baliraja foundation also made representations to the state government and the central government from time to time for the other demands of the farmers to be met. But it was not noticed. The petitioners had therefore filed a petition in the bench. During the preliminary hearing of the petition, the government was ordered to explain why the 2019 ruling is not being implemented. In a second hearing before Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sanjay Gangapurwala, the government stated that it was in the process of implementing the decision, and Rs 646 lakh has been sanctioned for Aurangabad division. The bench had then directed to file the ruling along with the affidavit and stated that the petition would be disposed off at a later date. After that, on September 23, during the hearing before Justice Sanjay Gangapurwala and Justice RG Avchat, the petition was disposed of on the basis of the government affidavit. The bench did not issue any order as other demands of the farmers came under the purview of the government''s policy decision. Adv S Yavalkar acted on behalf of the state government and Adv Chintamani acted on behalf of the central government in this case. Senior adv Praveen Mandlik and adv Pratap Mandlik acted on behalf of the petitioner. As per the demand of the divisional commissioner of Aurangabad, out of this compensation, Rs 646 lakh has been sanctioned by the government for Aurangabad division through a resolution dated September 11, 2020. This compensation will be paid in two installments. The government has stated in the affidavit that the process of distribution of the first installment is underway.