Bonus for paddy to be announced in Winter Session of Legislature: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde

File photo

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said that bonus for paddy will be announced in the Winter Session of the Maharashtra Legislature to be held in Nagpur next month. Shinde said his government believed in replying to the criticism by opponents through its work, news wire PTI reported.

The issue of bonus for paddy farmers was also raised by Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis in his address at the 'government at your doorstep' event.

Speaking at a 'shaasan aplya dari' programme in Bhandara, some 60 kilometres from here, Shinde said, "the Mahayuti government will announce bonus for paddy crop in the Winter Session of the Maharashtra Legislature to be held in Nagpur in December."

The state government is planning to bring about 8000 to 10,000 hectares of land under irrigation very soon, the CM added.

According to the PTI, Shinde said the ruling alliance, comprising the Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, had won two-third of the seats in the recently held gram panchayat polls and the opposition realises the ground is slipping from beneath their feet.

He said his government's schemes related to health care, waiver of MSRTC ticket fare for women etc were greatly helping the common citizen.

The CM Relief Fund has distributed Rs 140 crore to eligible persons since his government took over in June last year, while this amount was just Rs 2.5 core under the Maha Vikas Aghadi regime, he said.

Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole accused the Eknath Shinde-led government of being indifferent to farmers who lost their crops to erratic rains. "Industrial investment in the state is on the decline. Every time Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Maharashtra, he takes away some investment opportunity to Gujarat which has affected the state government revenue," the Congress leader said.

Also read: '30 pc commission BRS govt' should be sent packing after Nov 30 polls: Nadda

He claimed at least 16 ministers didn't attend the last Cabinet meeting held in Mumbai which indicates the state of affairs in the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) government.

"Already, 17 posts of ministries are vacant. On top of it, 16 ministers did not even attend the last meeting of the Cabinet. This shows the kind of situation the state is going through," Patole said. (With inputs from agencies)