The Assembly on Thursday passed a motion for considering the further stages of the Kerala Farmers’ Welfare Fund Bill, 2018, as reported by the Select Committee.
A ‘watershed’ scheme to provide farmers with an assured income and a share of the revenue generated from selling farm produce lay at the heart of the Bill mooted by Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar.
The Bill proposed to levy an Actio Apportum (Avakasha Labham) cess on farm produce. The levy will be rooted to farmers as a ‘profit rights’ fund. The Bill applies to a range of products, including dairy, livestock, poultry, rice, fruits and vegetables.
The Bill proposes to set up a welfare board to guarantee monthly pension and other benefits to farmers.
Land owning farmers (up to 15 acres), share croppers and tenant farmers can join the welfare fund. The board will levy them a minimum contribution of ₹100 per month. The government will contribute ₹250 monthly for each member farmer.
KMTA Bill
The Assembly also passed a motion to send the Kerala Metropolitan Transport Authority (KMTA) Bill, 2018 to the Select Committee. The Bill proposes a unified metropolitan transport authority to coordinate transport infrastructure development and planning in urban localities in the State.
It moots the declaration of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode cities as high-density urban mobility areas to be governed by a Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) having 15 members and a chairperson.
The MTA will be empowered to find and implement mass rapid transport solutions such as metro rail and improve and develop transport infrastructure for hassle-free and safe travel. Several foreign agencies had conditioned aid and loan packages to Kerala on the formation of such a single controlling transport authority.
