FLOOD-HIT FARMERS SEEK ` 50,000/HA AS COMPENSATION

Flood-affected farmers from East Vidarbha, on Friday, demanded that the state government should provide them a compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare instead of Rs 18,000 per hectare announced so far by the Minister of Relief and Rehabilitation Vijay Wadettiwar. They have pointed out that the aid declared so far was inadequate as the damage caused due to flood was quite huge.

More than 60,000 people were evacuated from the 175 villages of Nagpur, Bhandara, Chandrapur, and Gadchiroli districts because flooding occurred after heavy rains and water released from the dams. Hundreds of homes were submerged. Houses and farms have been severely damaged. Thousands of hectares of farmland were submerged as villages were flooded. The government has launched a panchnama to assess the damage.

The ruling and opposition parties have engaged in blame game on handling the ground level situation. Wadettiwar, who has been visiting the flood-hit villages, has defended the government’s intervention to deal with the situation. The Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Devendra Fadnavis had blamed the state government, saying that the lack of coordination with Madhya Pradesh resulted in the discharge of dam water. Wadettiwar has already announced an emergency relief of Rs 10,000 per family to the flood victims in Chandrapur district. The money will be deposited in the flood victims' account in the next two to three days.

Eight to nine thousand families in the district will get this help. Further, the government will give Rs 95,000 to the completely demolished houses, Rs 50,000 for house repairs and Rs 15,000 in case of partial collapse.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray today announced Rs 16.50 crore assistance for people affected by flood in the Nagpur division for the purchase of utensils, repairs of damaged homes and running relief camps for flood-hit villages.