Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced bonus of Rs. 20,000/ha for paddy. The announcement was made in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly during reply to last minute resolution tabled by Opposition parties in the Winter Session. Paddy is grown in large scale in Eastern Vidarbha. In fact, Gondia and Bhandara are considered rice bowl of Maharashtra, and hence the bonus would provide extra income to farmers.

 

It has been tradition of Winter Session wherein State Government announces bonus to paddy, and farmers eagerly look forward to the same. The bonus would however be disbursed with ceiling of 2 ha only. Apart from that, Chief Minister also announced a slew of measures to tackle the agrarian crisis and emphasised that State is going to stand with farmers, come what may. The main stress in on ensuring round the year irrigation so that farmers can take multiple crops instead of depending on one crop at a time.

 

For the same, apart from Wainganga-Nalganga project of Vidarbha, Fadnavis said that State is going to tap 62 TMC water that flows from Kanhan river into sea. Since Madhya Pradesh is unable to build a dam to stop the flow of water, Maharashtra Government has decided to tap the 62 TMC water that would be utilised for farming and drinking water needs. The water would be utilised for farming in Nagpur and adjoining Wardha district. The State is also going to lift the excess water from Wainganga and transfer it to Amravati, Yavatmal, Akola and Washim districts that have low irrigation. The water would be transported through series of tunnels and canals and that would be about 550 km in length.