Nagpur: Mahayuti Government has distributed Rs 44,000 crore for the agriculture sector to make farming sustainable in the State and so far Rs. 15,040 crore have been disbursed to farmers as compensation for damage to standing crops due to unseasonal rains and natural calamities.
Expressing concern over recurring pattern of damage to agricultural sector due to effects of climate change, Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde said State has decided to reconstitute the Task Force for curbing farmers’ suicides with new focus on sustainable farming.
Gold Rate
Thursday 09 Jan. 2025
Stating this in the Assembly on Monday, Chief Minister said funds are not going to fall short for fulfilling the assurances provided to farmers, at the same time priority is now on making the farmers more self-reliant by providing him support and necessary funding to carry out new experiments. The need is to build resilience in the system so that it can absorb the vagaries of nature and also to build confidence among farmers so that they too can take advantage of market situations and fluctuations.
Opposition stages walkout:
The Opposition staged a walkout from the Assembly after the Speaker disallowed the Leader of Opposition and others to speak on the Chief Minister’s reply to debate. Opposition leaders sought to corner the Government alleging no new announcement on demands of farmers and reeling out past statistics. Later, Nana Patole of Congress made a statement in the House saying that the Chief Minister repeated his monsoon session speech and there were no new announcements. The Speaker, however, pointed at the House rules and past traditions and said that there was no provision of Right to Reply in short discussion.
Shinde was replying to a short discussion held on unseasonal rains that led to widespread damages in many parts of the State during the last two weeks. The Speaker Rahul Narwekar had clubbed the proposal of Opposition as well as Ruling Party under Rule 293 of State Legislature. Initiating his nearly 45 minutes long speech, the Chief Minister provided bifurcation of the allocation wherein the higher amount is earmarked to Relief and Rehabilitation Department — Rs. 1489 crore, Rs. 1504 crore to Agriculture Department to undertake various schemes, Rs. 5190 crore to Co-operative sector, Rs. 5014 crore to Marketing Department, Rs. 3800 crore to Food and Civil Supplies and Rs. 243 crore to Animal Husbandry Department.
The respective departments would now focus on individual programmes centring around supporting the farmers, be it cultivators of oranges, they are being provided export subsidy, to protecting interest of onion growers who are being trained in usage of nuclear energy for protecting stored output for a longer period. These measures would go a long way in aiding the farmers to fight off the climate attack and also ensure they get assured markets for their produce.
At the same time, reiterating the commitment towards farmers, the Chief Minister further said that the State Government is going to fulfil the promise of the previous Government, Rs 50,000 incentive to farmers who had regularly paid their agricultural debt. So far Rs. 5190 crore have been deposited through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT ) in accounts of 14.31 lakh farmers who regularly paid their debt. In addition, 6.56 lakh farmers who were left out of SanmanYojana would now be covered by the Government. Contrary to criticism, the Government has already ordered panchnama of farms that were hit by hailstorm and unseasonal rains.
Also Shinde said that due to the firm stance of the State, the insurance companies have released 25 percent of the claim amount of Rs 1,217 crore to compensate the farmers. Post introduction of Rs 1 crop insurance scheme, the response from ryots increased by 177 per cent and this indicates the success of Government policies.
