The Hindu : Gehlot seeks Rs. 768.20 cr. for farm subsidy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 08, 2003

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Gehlot seeks Rs. 768.20 cr. for farm subsidy

By Our Staff Correspondent

JAIPUR JUNE 7. The Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, has urged the Centre to allocate Rs. 768.20 crores as the agricultural input subsidy to be paid to 26.68 lakh farmers and a huge number of small and marginal farmers in the State, while terming the previous allocation of Rs. 155.68 crores as insufficient.

In a letter addressed to the Union Agriculture Minister, Rajnath Singh, Mr. Gehlot said that against the State's demand for Rs. 768.20 crores, the Centre had calculated Rs. 387.55 crores as subsidy on the basis of the lesser average area sown during the past three years.

As per the State's estimate, the area where the kharif crop was sown during 2002 totalled 129 lakh hectares, while the Centre had calculated the average area measuring only 118 lakh hectares. Mr. Gehlot reminded Mr. Singh that the usual practice of working out an average area was by taking into account the sowing during five years.

``There is no tangible reason why the Union Agriculture Ministry's officials are calculating the average of three years,'' Mr. Gehlot noted. He said the average area of each farmer, where crop was not sown and where more than half of the crops sown were destroyed, was 3.93 hectares, while the farmers deserved input subsidy for two hectares each.

The number of farmers deserving subsidy, calculated by the Union Agriculture Ministry, was also not correct. The State needs Rs. 533.66 crores for payment of subsidy to 26.68-lakh farmers and Rs. 234.60 crores for the small and marginal farmers.

The Chief Minister pointed out that under this head, the Central Government had so far allocated only Rs. 155.68 crores, even as a letter of May 12 last sent by the Union Agriculture Ministry had stated that Rs. 387.55 crores had been allocated. ``In this situation, when right caculations have not been made, the deserving farmers will not be able to get subsidy,'' he said.

Mr. Gehlot referred to his earlier letter written to the then Agriculture Minister, Ajit Singh, in which he had clarified that the direction for releasing Rs. 107.10 crores from the Calamities Relief Fund to the Task Force could not be complied with because Rajasthan did not have sufficient money in the Fund.

``Similarly, the State has not received Rs. 115.53 crores from the National Contingency Fund in May this year, and as of now only Rs. 155.68 crores is available for payment as the input subsidy,'' he stated while drawing Mr. Singh's attention to the fact that the failure to pay subsidy would lead to discontent in the farming community.

Mr. Gehlot suggested that the Agriculture Minister resolve the issue on his own by organising a meeting which he would be ready to attend. Otherwise, the Union Agriculture Secretary could be instructed to settle the issue with the State Government's officials, so that the input subsidy could be paid in time to the farmers before the sowing of next crops begins.

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