Minister for Cooperation Sellur K Raju has said that the government has fixed a target of ₹8,000 crore for farm loans to the farmers during this year and ₹ 85 crore for farmers in the district.
Addressing the 65th All India Cooperative Week celebrations here on Saturday, he said between 2011 and October 2018, the government had distributed farm loans to the tune of ₹37,764.04 crore to 75.42 lakh farmers in the State.
In this district alone, a total of 90,008 farmers were given farm loans of ₹349.16 crore, he said. Besides, the government had waived farm loans of ₹5,318.73 crore to benefit 12.02 lakh farmers throughout the State during the period, he said.
He said during 2016-17, a total of 12.02 lakh farmers had insured their crops under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and 11.61 lakh of them had been given crop insurance of ₹ 3,350.27 crore. In this district, the farmers were given crop insurance of ₹545 crore, he added.
Between 2011 and October 2018, the government has helped 98.09 lakh farmers in the State with drought relief, cyclone relief, flood relief, farm loan waiver and crop insurance amounting to ₹13,922.53 crore, he said.
He said the Cooperative Week was celebrated throughout the country from November 14 to 20 to increase public awareness of the importance of the cooperative movement and the need to strengthen it.
“We had been celebrating Cooperative Week since 1955,” the Minister said.
Addressing the function, Minister for Information Technology M. Manikandan said the Cooperative department had pitched in to help the poor and the middle class by starting ‘Amma pharmacy’, ‘Amma canteen’ and ‘Amma vegetable markets’.
Later, Mr. Raju presented shields to best cooperative societies and distributed welfare assistance to 1,383 beneficiaries for ₹ 9.86 crore.
Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao, Mudukulathur MLA S. Pandi, Joint Registrar, Cooperatives P.M. Murugesan and Managing Director, District Central Cooperative Bank, S Thiruguna Iyappadurai. were among others present in the function.
