Shiv Sena MPs, MLAs to donate month’s salary towards farm loan waiver
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray would also contribute Rs 10 lakh towards farm loan waiver (Picture: Shiv Sena Official)
The Shiv Sena on Wednesday announced that party representatives at various levels, including MLAs, MPs and corporators, would donate one month’s salary towards the farm loan waiver.
The decision will apply to its ministers, MLAs, MPs, corporators, members of Zilla Parishads, Panchayat Samitis and Gram Panchayats.
The party has 18 MPs and 63 MLAs in Maharashtra. The ministers get paid around Rs 2 lakh salary per month, while MLAs get Rs 1.60 lakh per month.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray would also contribute Rs 10 lakh, Sena leader and senior state minister Diwakar Raote said, adding that Sena had supported farmers protest for loan waiver and now wants to contribute in giving relief to farmers through these donations.
“Uddhavji has already spent Rs 4.5 crore, earned from his photography, for farmers through various activities like giving help in drought-affected regions or water conservation work. He will now himself contribute Rs 10 lakh,” said Raote.
The BJP-led state government, in which Sena is a junior alliance partner, recently announced a loan waiver for farmers.
Earlier in the day, the state government issued a notification appealing its employees to contribute a day’s salary to provide financial assistance to families of farmers in the suicide-prone regions of the state.
The government resolution (GR) said that ministers, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, IAS, IPS and other senior officials in the government would donate a day’s salary towards the CM fund, which will be utilized to rehabilitate farmers’ families.
The government has also announced a loan waiver to tide over the state’s ongoing agriculture crisis.
Around 10,000 farmers from Maharashtra have committed suicide in the four-year period from 2013-2016.
