Link farmers’ Aadhaar and land records, says Fadnavis

Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis chaired a high-level meeting in Mumbai on Monday to discuss the drought like situation in Maharashtra, in which he directed a connection between Aadhaar card numbers and 7/12 land records for the smooth disbursement of government aid in drought management. The government had earlier announced that Aadhaar card would be interlinked to the loan amount for loan waiver.

A part of Marathwada and Vidarbha are currenly facing a drought-like situation as the second sowing has also failed to cultivate crops. Against this backdrop, Opposition parties and agriculture experts had requested the state government to be prepared for drought management. Mr Fadnavis’ directives are a response to that request.

Monday’s meeting was arranged as per the procedural instructions decided by the state government in 2016. In the meeting, Mr Fadnavi clearly asked the officers to link the farmers’ Aadhaar numbers to their 7/12 papers to make the process of identifying the needy farmers easier. “We are already linking Aadhar numbers for loan waiver scheme. If we link it to the 7/12 as well, it would be helpful for the government machinery,” said Mr Fadnavis.

He further said, “The government will use drone cameras to survey the drought hit area and damaged crops to get an exact idea of the situation. A few districts have sufficient rain in catchments of big dams but certain other parts have received less rain, so we need to start planning accordingly for the severe droughts.”

He has also asked officers to be lenient while deciding the criteria for drought-affected farmers.

This year, parts of Marathwada and Vidarbha have received less rainfall and farmers from districts like Yavatmal, Washim, Hingoli, Beed and Nanded are worried about the failure of crop cultivation even after sowing twice.