Input subsidy for the next crop for around 32 lakh farmers in the State, who faced at least 33 % loss in yield in the last season owing to drought, would directly be transferred to their bank accounts shortly, said Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar.
Addressing a district-level drough relief review meeting here on Sunday, he said the district administration was on the verge of finishing collation of bank account details of farmers, following which the money will be transferred. The State government had decided to release ₹ 2,247 crore to provide immediate relief to the farmers even though the Central government was yet to release any fund to Tamil Nadu for the drought.
Minister for Cooperation ‘Sellur’ K. Raju, who attended the meeting, said 89,830 farmers would get the input subsidy. Claiming that all possible measures were being taken to mitigate hardships of farmers, he said crop loans of 5,372 farmers in the district had been converted to medium-term loans.
Commissioner of Revenue Administration K. Satyagopal, who chaired the meeting, said it was a policy decision to do electronic transfer of input subsidy to ensure that it immediately reached farmers. Taluk-level validation of bank account details was in progress. Once it was completed, bank-wise list of farmers would be prepared and the transfer effected at one go, he said.
Water crisis
Drinking water crisis looming large on the horizon owing to failure of rains and mitigation measures being planned were reviewed at the meeting.
Pointing out that Madurai Corporation in particular was in a dire situation, Mr. Satyagopal, however, assured that the situation was being reviewed on a weekly basis and adequate mitigation measures were being planned to sail through the crisis till the end of summer.
Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao said the Corporation was planning to sink around 500 borewells to meet drinking water shortage since water availability in Vaigai dam would last only for another 15 days.
Mr. Raju pointed out that only ₹ 10 crore of the ₹ 36 crore fund requested by Madurai Corporation for managing the drinking water crisis had been sanctioned and requested the Revenue Minister to release the remainder soon. Mr. Udhayakumar assured that ₹ 10 crore was only the first instalment and the remaining amount would be sanctioned soon.
