The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) authorities introduced on March 16 that the electrical energy provide to farmers’ water pumps is not going to be disconnected for the following three months regardless of their mounting dues. Regardless of various ruling events or coalitions, the Maharashtra authorities’s vitality division has been reeling underneath the disaster of spiraling arrears linked to agricultural pumps for almost a decade, with each dispensation persevering with to resort to populism over this hot-button political situation.
What is Maharashtra’s agricultural pump arrears disaster?
Maharashtra vitality division principal secretary Dinesh Waghmare says the excellent dues from farmers over energy payments for his or her agricultural pumps have been pending since 2013-14. He factors out that such dues have an effect on the vitality division’s funds. The division had come out with a coverage in 2020 for farmers to pay their dues, when almost Rs 15,000 crore was waived. But this coverage didn’t obtain any response from farmers.
What occurred within the Assembly on March 16?
The situation of disconnecting energy provide to farmers’ pumps for not clearing their dues was mentioned within the Maharashtra Assembly on March 16, when even the ruling coalition MVA’s MLAs such because the Shiv Sena’s Babaji Kalyankar and the NCP’s Prakash Solanke opposed it and demanded aid for the defaulting farmers. The BJP’s Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Devendra Fadnavis supported their demand. Many MLAs from each the ruling coalition and the Opposition maintained that such farmers should be given aid a minimum of until the tip of the present Kharif season.
What stand did the MVA authorities take?
Maharashtra vitality minister Nitin Raut, in his reply, informed the Assembly that energy to agricultural pumps wouldn’t be lower off for the following three months to present farmers time to reap their Kharif crops throughout the state. He mentioned the state-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has been burdened with arrears to the tune of about Rs 64,000 crore. Out of this, the arrears linked to agricultural pumps amounted to Rs 44,920 crore as much as December 31, 2020, Raut mentioned, including that the arrears of shoppers whose electrical energy provide have been disconnected as a consequence of non-payment of dues stood at Rs 6,423 crore.
The minister additionally mentioned that the arrears of the home, industrial and industrial shoppers by March 2021 amounted to Rs 7,568 crore. He mentioned varied municipal councils and companies owed the MSEDCL Rs 9,011 crore and that the state authorities places of work owed it Rs 207 crore. He mentioned that after the
authorities supplied an set up cost choice to the commercial, industrial and home shoppers, their energy dues had come right down to Rs 5,492 crore by January this 12 months. The authorities has additionally supplied an amnesty scheme for farmers with pump dues, and would waive their penalties value Rs 15,097 crore, which would scale back such arrears to Rs 30,731 crore, he added.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
