The State government has allocated ₹750 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the construction of about one-lakh drying platforms planned in all gram panchayats and hamlets in rural 32 districts this financial year.
Construction of the drying platforms/harvesting yards was proposed to prevent the farmers drying their crops on roads leading to accidents every year. A decision in this regard was taken by the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Agriculture and Chief Minister has approved the proposal based on its recommendation.
Initially it was proposed to construct platforms with 45 square meters area on a raised bed of 45 cm with a cost of ₹46,000 each. However, after examining other options, the government has decided to three types of drying platforms in three different sizes — with 50 square meters area (538 square feet) costing ₹56,000, with 60 sq. mtrs. (645 sft) costing ₹68,000 and with 75 sq. mtrs. (807 sft) costing ₹85,000.
Accordingly, the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department has issued guidelines for constructing drying platforms in the lands belonging to self-help group (SHG) members who are farmers and other individual farmers too. The government has fixed the beneficiary contribution for SHG members/farmers for other communities at 10% of the cost, while it would not there for the SC/ST farmers and SHG members.
Secretary (PR&RD) Sandeep Kumar Sultania has asked the District Collectors to give wide publicity to the subject/facility and encourage farmers to apply for it to MPDO at mandal level and Agriculture Extension Officer at agriculture cluster level. The MPDO, AEO/AO and APO of MGNREGS would have to prepare a consolidated list of applications for taking up field verification, check land availability and obtain consent of the individual land owner after the visit.
The District Collectors would make mandal and village wise allocation/sanction based on the demand and population of farmers and selected the beneficiaries on the basis of lottery, if need be. According to the orders issued by Secretary (PR&RD), highest allocation of ₹56.31 crore has been made to Nalgonda district followed by ₹38.85 crore to Sangareddy, ₹37.98 crore to Rangareddy, ₹36.48 crore to Khammam, ₹32.57 crore to Nagarkurnool, ₹31.67 crore to Kamareddy and ₹31.42 crore to Suryapet.
For other districts the allocation is in the range of ₹4.75 crore (Medchal-Malkajgiri) to ₹28.05 crore (Vikarabad).
