Monsoon rain 70% short outside Mumbai, Pune, Nashik; dues to contractors, staff pending ahead of Diwali

According to Prof Ashok Doiphode, the scientists' report issued earlier by the weather department for the state has proved entirely correct. He says that apart from Mumbai, Pune and Nashik, monsoon rain in the rest of the state has been 70 per cent below normal, creating an unprecedented crisis. In his words, crores of farmers are in difficulty, farmer suicides are rising, which is deeply worrying, and the 2026 rainy season has vanished.

Doiphode says that at the outset the Opposition and leaders of various parties had made a justified demand that the government give distressed farmers financial aid of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh per hectare. In the end, the state government announced aid of only Rs 5,000 for farmers. Doiphode calls this an attempt to rub salt into farmers' wounds and says the aid is "a cumin seed in a camel's mouth". According to him, how the Opposition and leaders fell silent afterwards is a puzzle.

He has also raised the matter of government contractors. According to Doiphode, Rs 96,000 crore owed to contractors is pending with the state government, and contractor suicides are rising continually because of this. He called it a serious matter. He also said this does not befit a state that pays the Centre the highest GST in the country, Rs 35,150 crore.

Rs 7,500 crore due to 86,000 officers and employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (ST) is also said to be pending with the state government.

Doiphode has given some figures on the wage commission. The state has 17 lakh government employees and about 7 lakh pensioners. The Centre has 50 lakh employees and 69 lakh pensioners in the country. The Centre restructures the pay of government officers and employees every 10 years, and the first pay commission was formed in 1946. The 8th Pay Commission was only announced in January 2025, but there was considerable delay in constituting it. According to Doiphode, the pay commission's recommendations should in fact have taken effect in the new year of January 2026, but because of the Centre's indifferent policy, central and state government employees and pensioners have to celebrate Diwali in the dark.

He demands that the pay commission's recommendations be implemented in the state as at the Centre, and that the Centre provide funds for this. Doiphode says that despite the double-engine government in the state, the state government has never given state employees and pensioners the same justice as central employees. According to him, the state gave the benefit of the 6th and 7th pay commissions with a delay of 3 years, and instead of paying the arrears in a lump sum in cash as the Centre did, split them into 5 equal instalments without interest. He called this a deception of state employees. The demand is that the state avoid repeating this and deliver justice.

Dearness allowance is also in question. The Centre has recently announced the current dearness allowance at 63 per cent, but even at Diwali the state government has not announced the July 2026 dearness allowance. This has created financial distress amid rising prices. This was said by Prof Vijay Rathi, a recipient of the State Adarsh Shikshak Puraskar. He alleges that the government treasury has money only to win elections, but is empty when it comes to giving farmers, labourers, contractors and employees their due. Rathi has demanded that the state government follow rajdharma.