Mumbai: After declaring drought in 151 talukas of 26 districts, the State government has to credit financial help directly to the farmers, which will put an extra burden of Rs 20,000 crore on the State’s exchequer. 

As pressure rises from allies and opposition parties to help drought-affected farmers, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led State government announced drought in the State on October 31. Now, as per the Centre’s drought manual, the State will have to provide help to the drought-affected farmers, including subsidies and waive off the electricity bills, land revenue and other charges. 

“The villages that received less than 700 mm rainfall, which is less than 75 percentage rainfall during the season, will also be included in the list of the drought-affected villages. There are 250 such circles having less rainfall. The Union government will not help these extra villages. So, it will put an extra burden on the exchequer,” said State Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil.    

As the drought has been declared, the State government has to start the work of Employment Guarantee Schemes (EGS) in these villages. The Water Conservation Department and Employment Guarantee Scheme Department will start work of water conservation and internal roads in the State to give employment to farmers in the drought-affected regions. The cost of this will be around Rs 12,500 crore across the State. 

According to officials from the EGS Department, the work of EGS has started already, but the Department will speed up the work from Friday after getting details from all collectors. The State will face loss in collection of land revenues as it has been waived off and 33 percentage concession has to be given in electricity bills. 

The State government will also have to credit the amount of compensation directly to the farmer’s bank account. The compensation for the irrigated land is Rs 13,500 and Rs 6,800 for non-irrigated land.