The Centre has approached the Election Commission seeking permission to provide relief and rehabilitation to farmers affected by unseasonal rain and hailstorms in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. As the Model Code of Conduct is in force, the government has to seek the ECI’s approval before implementing any policy decision.
Maharashtra has sought Rs. 1,427 crore in relief for damage to the rabi crop on 17.69 lakh hectares in 28 districts. Madhya Pradesh has reported damage on 11.55 lakh hectares in 51 districts. The State has sought approximately Rs. 4,000 crore. Central teams have visited both States and submitted their assessment of the damage.
Karnataka has also given a memorandum to the Union Agriculture Ministry, reporting damage to 1.68 lakh hectares of agriculture crop and 15,298 hectares of horticulture crop in 13 districts.
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A meeting of the high-level Committee (HLC) on Natural Calamity and the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), chaired by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, decided to extend relief to the affected farmers. But the panel was barred by the ECI from announcing its decision.
“The Election Commission only gave us permission to hold a meeting of the HLC and the EGoM, not to announce the decisions without taking its permission,” Mr. Pawar told journalists after the meeting.
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Asked about reports that several farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra in the past three weeks, Mr. Pawar said “nothing has been officially communicated to us.”
Declining to divulge details of the HLC and EGoM meeting, he said he had, in 2009, disclosed some decision relating to sugar export and had to apologise to the Commission. He did not want to repeat that mistake, he said.
Seeking to dispel concerns over onion production, he said the output last year was more than double the previous year’s.
The Centre will seek the ECI’s permission also to implement the compensation directives the HLC issued for Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which were hit by floods last year.