Working out a rough estimate, the State government's Agriculture department says losses amount to crores of rupees.

And to add to the farmers woes, no budgetary provision has been made by the Revenue and Forests department to provide financial assistance to them in case of natural calamity. If the government compensates the farmers for the lost crops, it will cost the State exchequer about Rs 15 crore.

Since there is no budgetary provision, the cash-strapped Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government has been advised by the Agriculture department to arrange the cash from the Contingency Fund. A decision to this effect is expected to be taken in the Cabinet meeting scheduled for October 16, 1998.

Meanwhile, the worst affected district is Osmanabad where crops on over 35,000hectres have been washed away since June 1998. In fact, barring Ratnagiri, Sangli, Kolhapur and Gadchiroli districts, all other districts in the State have reported loss of crops - rice, wheat, jowar, bajra, groundnut, all types of pulses and fruits. Other severely affected districts are Buldhana (over 19,000 hectres), Akola (over 12,500 hectres), Parbhani (over 17,400 hectres) and Jalna (over 10,300 hectres). The list also includes districts where the loss is not so high but is serious enough. The districts are Dhule, Jalgaon, Washim, Solapur, Nanded, Beed, Latur, Amravati and Bhandara.

Unfortunately, these figures are only a primary estimate of the damages till September end, 1998. After a complete survey of the situation, the losses are expected to escalate even further. Also, the figures listed above are of places where the crops have been damaged more than 50 per cent. This means that the list of crops damaged less than 50 per cent will further add to the losses.

The administration has recommendedfour measures to the Cabinet led by Manohar Joshi for assisting the rain-affected farmers. The farmers who lost more than 50 per cent of their crop should be paid Rs 1,000 per hectre with a maximum limit of five hectres. In case of uprooting of trees bearing fruits, the farmers should be paid financial aid under the Employment Guarantee Scheme. The farmers who lost fruits alone should be paid Rs 1,000 per hectre with a maximum limit of two hectres. In case branches of trees bearing fruits are broken, the farmer should be provided fertilisers and pesticides worth Rs 1,000 per hectre.

The fate of the farmers now hangs in the hands of the State Cabinet, members of which are busy fighting amongst themselves on providing free electricity to farmers.