Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced a calamity relief fund with a corpus of ₹2,000 crore to provide compensation for the crop loss caused by drought and cyclones. He has also announced a provision of ₹1 crore to each MLA, irrespective of the party affiliation, for addressing the drinking water problem in their respective constituencies.
The Chief Minister has also announced the release of ₹2,000 crore towards agricultural input subsidy, which according to him should have been disbursed by the previous dispensation, and establishment of laboratories in all constituencies for testing the quality of farm inputs (seed, fertilizers and pesticides). Besides, a market stabilisation fund of ₹3,000 crore is being created. MLAs are being appointed as honorary chairperson of the Agricultural Market Committees to enable the farmers to realise better prices for their produce.
Debt burden
These are some of the major steps being taken by the government immediately for mitigating the impact of drought, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said while blaming the TDP government for the agricultural debt mounting from nearly ₹87,612 crore to ₹1.49 lakh crore.
Intervening in a discussion on drought in the Assembly on Thursday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the State received 70.1 mm rainfall against the normal 135.5 mm between June 1 and July 10, and sowing was completed only in three lakh hectares, which should have been over in nine lakh hectares. During the last five years, 1,513 farmers allegedly committed suicide. But ex gratia was paid to the kin of only 391 farmers, he said.
The government decided to give compensation to the families of the 1,122 farmers, to whom the TDP Government had not paid a single pie, the Chief Minister said.
An ex gratia of ₹7 lakh had already been announced in respect of the farmers who met with accidental death, or had ended their lives due to financial distress, he pointed out. The Collectors had been instructed to identify the beneficiaries.
Rythu Bharosa
Under the Rythu Bharosa scheme scheduled to be launched on October 15, a sum of ₹8,750 crore would be given as input assistance to over 70 lakh farmers, including tenant farmers.
A sum of ₹300 crore was released for clearing the paddy procurement dues out of the total outstanding amount of ₹900 crore, the Chief Minister stated, adding that due priority was given to making adequate quantities of seed available for the 2019 kharif and taking stringent action against traders selling spurious seed.
