New Delhi, December 16: In the wake of BJP’s defeat in three big states which many attributed to growing farm distress, the party-led Maharashtra government is considering a host of measures like ex-gratia grant and transport subsidy for onion growers to provide them relief against sliding prices. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suffered a rural drubbing in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in recent state polls and the party ruling at the Centre is looking for smart solutions to address agrarian distress ahead of 2019 general elections.

Maharashtra is one of the major onion grower states in the country and both the Centre and the state government want to avert onion crisis as opposition parties have decided to raise the farm distress issue to corner the ruling dispensation in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. Nashik: Two Farmers Dump Their Onion on Road as Prices Fell.

According to sources, the Maharashtra government is in the process of finalising intervention measures such as ex-gratia grant and transport subsidy under a central scheme ‘Operation Green’. Maharashtra Farmer Gets Rs 1,064 for 750 Kg of Onion; Sends Money to PM Modi in Angst.

The ‘Operation Green’ is relatively a new scheme, implemented by the Union Food Processing Ministry, that has a corpus of Rs 500 crore and aims to aid farmers in times of erratic price fluctuation in tomatoes, onions and potatoes.