109.42 cr released for farmers in Prakasam

Ongole: The Prakasam district collector Dr Pola Bhaskara announced that 106085 farmers from the district have been receiving Rs 109.42 crores as claims for crop insurance.

The chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has organized a videoconference with the collectors and farmers from secretariat on the release of crop insurance claims on Friday and initiated the transfer of the amount to the farmers' accounts online directly. The chief minister said that the government has paid Rs 166 crores as the premium for the farmers who have lost crops due to the drought. As a result, he informed, that the farmers received Rs 596.36 crores as the insurance benefits. He said that the instructions were given to the banks to not withhold the amount for the earlier loans and announced that free crop insurance is introduced with e Cropping program.

The district administration announced that for the 2018-19 rabi season, the 38436 farmers of Bengal gram claimed Rs 61.48 crores, 34242 farmers of Jowar received Rs 24.76 crores, 6096 farmers of maize received Rs 3.54 crores, 18402 farmers of black gram received Rs 14.15 crores, 641 farmers of green gram received Rs 0.31 crores, 151 farmers of sunflower received Rs 0.02 crores, 5089 farmers of chillies received Rs 3.60 crores, and 3008 paddy farmers received Rs 1.53 crores in the district. The collector distributed the insurance benefit to the farmers and said that a large number of farmers from the district have been receiving crop insurance benefit and advised them to use it carefully.

The JC J Venkata Murali, DRO V Venkata Subbaiah, CPO D Venkateswarlu, agriculture JD Sriramamurthy, APMIP PD Raveendrababu and others also participated in the program.