Rs 1095 crore loan assistance for farmers: Odisha Govt

Rattled by growing number of farmers’ suicide cases, the Naveen Patnaik government on Monday announced to provide Rs 1095 crore loan assistance to farmers to take up Rabi cultivation in a vigorous manner. Three farmers are alleged to have committed suicide as they could not payoff the debt they had taken from the money-lenders. The opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] have made it an issue in the coming winter session of the Assembly next month.

To avoid the embarrassment of having the tag of anti-farmers, the government has also decided to give priority to electrification of irrigation points by not using water in the dams for electricity generation purpose. Besides, it also declared to provide seeds, pesticides and fertilizers to farmers at subsidized rate. Speaking to reporters after a high-level review meeting chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, state agriculture minister Damodar Rout said Rabi crop will be taken up in at least 21 lakh hectares of land.

In order to meet the water requirement for irrigation purposes, the government would provide 22,000 pump-sets at subisidised prices, besides supplying 1.12 lakh quintals of groundnut seeds. "Among other instructions, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has asked distribution companies operating in Odisha to provide electricity connections to all the lift irrigation points and stop hydro-electricity generation till the Rabi season is over," agriculture minister Mr Rout said.

Development commissioner Satya Prakash Nanda, water resources secretary Suresh Mohapatra, agriculture secretary U. P. Singh, panchayati raj secretary S.N. Tripathy and energy secretary Pradip Kumar Jena were present in the meeting.

Source:The Economic Times