Govt steps out of crease for farmers

MUMBAI: To woo over 15 million farmers and their families that make up over half the Maharashtra population, the ShindeFadnavis government announced a slew of schemes for the farming community. A major scheme named after prime minister Narendra Modi was the cash transfer of ₹6,000 per farmer in addition to the equal amount credited in the accounts of the farmers by the central government under PM-Kisan yojana.

The state government will bear the annual burden of ₹12,000 crore towards the annual cash benefit of ₹6,000 to 11.5 million farmers in the state. “The cash benefit is to support the farmers financially. The benefit can go up to ₹20,000 annually as the benefit is per person who is registered as a farmer,” said chief minister Eknath Shinde. The scheme is named as

Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi. The government also announced crop insurance for farmers at just ₹1 instead of paying 2% of the premium under crop insurance scheme. The annual cost of the implementation is expected to be ₹3,312 crore. The two schemes are expected to create the goodwill for the government helping it in the forthcoming local body polls, especially in the rural areas.

Farmers from 14 suicide-affected districts in central Maharashtra and Vidarbha have been getting wheat and rice at ₹2 and ₹3 a kg through public distribution system. The budget has the announcement of ₹1,800 per person per year instead of the food grains. It has also announced to pay the loan waiver under the scheme announced by the Fadnavis government in 2017 to the farmers who were left out because of the change in the government in 2019. About 5 lakh farmers are expected to get the benefit of over ₹4,000 crore.

HT PHOTO Farmers make up over half of the state’s population.