Thousands of farmers and tribals from Maharashtra called off their planned march to Mumbai on Tuesday, October 27, after talks with the state government led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, according to reports rounding up the day's developments in Mumbai.

The march, organised by the All India Kisan Sabha, had set off from Akole on October 26 with more than 12,000 farmers and rural workers demanding more drought relief, quicker crop insurance payments and a wider loan waiver. Marchers carrying red flags moved from Igatpuri along the Nashik–Mumbai highway on Tuesday, and Fadnavis was expected to meet a delegation of farmers that evening.

At its cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the state government directed officials to transfer Rs 5,000 each to 1.5 crore farmers this week as advance drought relief, with a total provision of Rs 7,500 crore, news agency ANI reported. Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said the money will reach farmers' accounts before Diwali and that banks have been told not to deduct anything from it.

"After a drought was declared, 12 kinds of benefits provided to them will certainly be provided to farmers, which they always get — fee waiver, arrangement for water, loan reorganisation, ease of loan recovery. But besides this, the government had also decided to provide them Rs 5,000 as immediate help," Shinde said, according to ANI.

Fadnavis said the state government has talked to the Reserve Bank of India so that forcible recovery of loans from farmers by microfinance companies is stopped. "For loan recovery also, we have talked to the RBI that forcible recovery from farmers by microfinance companies should be stopped," he said after the cabinet meeting, ANI reported.

Maharashtra has declared drought in 305 of its 358 talukas. The size of final crop-loss payments is still to be fixed after field surveys, and farm groups have been pressing for the amount and timing of aid, the loan waiver rules and pending scheme payments to be settled quickly.