Odisha announces ₹10K-crore assistance package for farmers
BHUBANESWAR: With farm distress sweeping the country and the governments of several Hindi heartland states announcing mega loan waivers ahead of 2019 general election, chief minister Naveen Patnaik Friday announced a ~10,180 crore programme under which farmers will get ~10,000 a year for purchase of seeds, fertilisers and insecticides as well as an interest free loan of ~50,000.
Effectively, a handout of ~10,000 to each farmer in the state, the populist move comes ahead of assembly polls which are usually held along with the general election in the state.
The state cabinet Friday approved the scheme, titled Krushak Assistant for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA), which will be operational for the next the three years. The name of the scheme is likely to find huge resonance with the farmers as Lord Jagannath, the state’s most popular diety is popularly called Kalia by millions of his devotees. Incidentally, the announcement of the scheme comes just three days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Odisha to announce projects worth ~14,500 crore in the state.
“Kalia is progressive, inclusive and will make a direct attack on poverty by way of massive investment in this sector and making benefits reach the neediest through Direct Benefit Transfer mode,” said Patnaik.
Modelled on the Ryuthu Bandhu scheme of the Telangana government, as well as Raita Baku scheme of Karnataka government in which farmers get investment support for inputs such as seeds and pesticides, over three million farmers of the state will get ~10,000 a year.
Besides, a million landless households will be given ~12,500 each to take up activities such as rearing goats, pisciculture, mushroom cultivation and beekeeping. And for about a million farmers who may not be able to take up these livelihood options due to old age, disability, disease or other reasons, an annual financial assistance of ~10,000 per household will be provided.
Finally, under the terms of the scheme, crop loans up to ~ 50,000 will henceforth be interest free.
Chief secretary Aditya Padhi said eligible families will be identified and selected by Gram Panchyats. Apart from this, life insurance cover of ~200,000 and an additional personal accident cover of ~200,000 will be provided to both cultivators and landless agricultural labourers covering about 5.7 million households. NEWDELHI:CONGRESS will launch a nationwide agitation next month against agrarian distress and press its demand for farm loan waivers in states ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Buoyed by its electoral success in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the Congress is hoping that raising farmers’ issues will pay it rich dividends in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
“The BJP government, by intent and policy, wants to make India kisan-mukt Bharat but now the farmers have taken a decision to make the central government Bjp-mukt in 2019. The farmers’ issues are not a priority for the BJP government because they are busy with headline management rather than nation management,” Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said.
The party’s farmer cell, the Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress, has decided to hold protests across the country against the BJP government for “ignoring” agrarian distress and expose its “anti-farmer mindset”. Its chief, Nana Patole said: “The Niti Aayog has given a statement on farm loan waivers. When Rahul Gandhi called for a farm loan waiver in Parliament, the BJP had problems. The fact is that the Prime Minister and the BJP are against farmers and the Niti Aayog statement clearly shows their anti-farmer mindset.”
Niti Aayog had on Wednesday said such a move helped only a fraction of farmers and was no solution to mitigate agrarian distress.