Mumbai, May 2: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led central government will soon declare a special monetary package for the agrarian hit districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada divisions of Maharashtra. According to a news report in The Indian Express, a special package worth Rs 13,650 crore for over five years will be allotted to address the agrarian problem in 14-suicide-prone districts of the state. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, who hails from the Vidharbha region has pushed for the demand.

The report further informed that a meeting on the proposal was held in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on April 9. Also, the inter-ministerial Expenditure Finance Committee met last week pertaining to same and examined the proposal for cabinet's approval.

The proposal stated that the projects approved under the special package do not fit into the guidelines for inclusion/funding under the existing schemes (Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP)/Har Khet Ko Pani). Therefore, Central Assistance (CA) in the form of special package is proposed, which would accelerate the irrigation projects is believed.

The irrigation potential created in 14 districts of Marathwada and Vidarbha is around 18 per cent. While at present only 6.40% area is irrigated, the balance 93.6% area is rain-fed. Therefore, providing adequate irrigation facilities for sustainable agriculture is the need of the hour, the proposal stated.

The proposal has been prepared to resolve the rising agrarian problem, to the worst-hit Vidarbha and Marathwada. The state has experienced hydrological and agricultural drought during the year 2012 to 2016. Also, it referred that the unfortunate incidences of farmers suicide occurred mainly in the six districts of Vidarbha and eight districts of Marathwada. The common reasons behind such suicides are “agriculture is mainly rain-fed and without irrigation facilities, the yield of farm produce is low” and the “inability to repay the loans due to less income”.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 02, 2018 02:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).