Mumbai: Five thousand rupees, handed out just before Diwali to drought-hit farmers. One figure was enough to set the ruling side and the opposition at each other.
For Diwali, the state government has announced a ₹5,000 advance to drought-hit farmers. At both Shiv Sena rallies on Tuesday (20 October), it was the central argument.
Uddhav Thackeray mocked it. "You find 50 boxes for MLAs to save your chair, but no money for farmers. You give ₹5,000 — these rulers should be ashamed," he said at his Shivaji Park rally. He also put it as: "fifty missing boxes, and ₹5,000 for farmers — that is your charity."
Thackeray said the drought was severe and hailstorm compensation had still not reached farmers. He asked how many farmers actually got help despite the announcement of a ₹30,000-crore relief package, and said crop insurance, loan waiver and Namo Kisan dues were pending.
Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde defended the government at his own rally by listing its schemes. Farmers get ₹6,000 a year under the Centre's PM-Kisan and another ₹6,000 from a state scheme, he said, claiming ₹60,000 crore had so far been deposited in farmers' accounts.
Answering the opposition on loan waivers, Shinde said the government had waived ₹32,000 crore in loans and given a ₹50,000 incentive to farmers who repaid on time. His party would take charge of community weddings for farmers' daughters whose marriages were hit by the drought, he announced, and 'anandacha shidha' — Diwali rations — would go out to drought-hit talukas before the festival.
Shinde said that because the state was in drought he had asked party workers from the interior not to travel to Mumbai, and that he had sent 100 truckloads of material for the drought-affected.
The real question is whether ₹5,000 is too little and whether it will arrive on time. Whether the money reaches farmers' accounts in the coming week will settle the argument.