Govt sanctions Rs 830cr to compensate crop loss

Anantapur: "The State Government will extend its full support to the district farmers who incurred heavy losses by cultivating groundnut and other crops. As part of the compensation, Rs. 830.55 crore were sanctioned to the district. In this, Rs. 648.88 crore belong to input subsidy and Rs 181.67 crore for crop insurance," Minister for Revenue N Raghuveera Reddy said. Addressing the media here on Friday along with Primary Education Minister Dr S Sailajanath, MP Ananta Venkatarami Reddy, Raghuveera Reddy described the State Government's decision as a Ugadi festival gift to the district and said that the amount will be given to 6,32,541 famers for about 6,67,736 hectares of acres. The government had been announcing the district as drought prone for the past 10 years, which was reeling under drought since 18 years, he added. "Steps will be taken to see that the amount will be credited into the farmers' accounts before the start of kharif season, within two months", the Minister assured. About 6,32,000 farmers in the district will get Rs 14,000 each, he said. The Minister said that the government had planned a permanent solution to save the district farmers from drought. As a part of this plan, Ayyappan Committee visited the district to study the drought conditions and submitted its report suggesting the district needs Rs 7,000 crore for drought control, he added. The Central government would release 58% and the Planning Commission will release 42% of the funds and the State government had submitted a report to both the UPA government and the Planning Commission is accepting this proposal, he explained. Raghuveera Reddy said the government had also sanctioned another Rs 48 crore in the form of input subsidy to be given to farmers who incurred losses by cultivating jowar, castor, maize, cotton, sunflower and other crops. The government is thriving to relieve the farmers from the burden of drought on a permanent basis. As a part of this, 38.82 lakh quintals of groundnut seeds have been distributed to farmers with a subsidy of Rs 475.82 crores in the district. About Rs 13,157 crores of crop loans were sanctioned by banks by which 45,84,194 farmers were benefitted, he said. Legislative Council Government Whip Y Sivarami Reddy, MLC Gundumala Tippeswamy, District Collector V Durgadas, Joint Collector Satyanarayana, Assistant Joint Collector Chennakesava Rao, MLAs of Dharmavaram, Madakasira and Guntakal Venkatrami Reddy, Sudhakar and Madhusudhan Gupta, senior Congress leader Patil Venugopal Reddy and others participated in the press conference.