Big relief to farmers in Maharashtra, government waives electricity bill worth Rs 48000 crore

Maharashtra government has given huge financial relief to the farmers. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the government has taken a historic decision to eliminate the agricultural electricity dues pending for years on the farmers of the state. Under this, old dues worth about Rs 48 thousand crore related to agricultural electricity connections up to 7.5 horse power will be waived. The Chief Minister said that the state government is making continuous efforts to provide adequate electricity to the farmers without any hassle.

The CM said that at present electricity is being provided to about 76 percent of the farmers through schemes like Solar Agricultural Vehicle and Agricultural Pump and the government aims to provide electricity facility to all the farmers of the state in the near future. He said that years old electricity dues in the name of a large number of farmers are recorded in the government records. Due to such arrears, there is constant financial pressure on the farmers and there is a possibility of recovery action at any time.

Farmers’ financial records will be clean

Chief Minister Fadnavis said, ‘We want the financial records of the farmers to be completely clean. They should be free from the burden of old dues and do farming with new energy and new faith and write a new chapter of their future. He said that with this thinking in mind, the state government has taken this important decision to provide relief to the farmers from old electricity dues.

There will be no financial burden on the public

He has clarified that the financial burden of this exemption will not fall on the public. To support the state power distribution company, the government has made an annual budgetary provision of Rs 25,000 crore as subsidy to cover agricultural power costs. Speaking on the dangers associated with irrigation at night, such as snake bites and other life-threatening risks, the Chief Minister pledged to move the entire state towards daytime power supply.

76 percent farmers get electricity during day time

CM said, ‘At present 76 percent of our farmers get electricity during the day. We have set a target to achieve 100 percent coverage by the end of this year. He further said that under the government’s solar energy initiative, farmers will soon be provided free electricity for 8 to 12 hours during the day.

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