Slamming the Maharashtra government for its failure to extend compensation to the farmers for the losses suffered by them due to unseasonal rains last year, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Monday rooted for the Eknath Shinde dispensation providing immediate assistance to the distressed farmers across the state.

Participating in a discussion on farmers’ issues in the Maharashtra Assembly, Patole charged that while the farmers in the state were a distressed lot, no help was reaching them. “The state government only announces help but does not implement it. Compensation for the losses reported by farmers due to unseasonal rains last year has not yet been received, nor has any survey been done," he said.

“The government does not have ground level staff like talathis and agricultural assistants to do this work.... The state government should get its act together  provide immediate assistance to the farmers in distress,” he said.

Patole said that owing to heavy rains that the state had been experiencing for the last several days, lakhs of hectares of agriculture had been washed away, while water has entered people's houses, foodgrains have been submerged, people are starving.

“Suicides by the farmers and the poor have increased in the state. This is not a matter of politics, those who have suffered losses should be given substantial help by the government. The government approves supplementary demands worth crores, but yet the farmer is not getting any help,” he said.

The Congress leader said that the farmers, common people had lost faith in this government, and there was a need for the government to regain this faith. “The minister says that instructions have been given to the authorities to hand out compensation to farmers but in reality the farmers are not receiving the compensation," he said.

While asking the state government to come clean on the issue, Patole also sought details of crop insurance money given to farmers under its scheme of insurance for farmers paying Rupee one as premium.