Speedy disbursal of input subsidy sought

Highlights

Thousands of farmers in the district were deprived of input subsidy due to the failure of the Agriculture department.

Govt ready to sell rain guns to ryots with 60% subsidy: JDA

Chittoor: Thousands of farmers in the district were deprived of input subsidy due to the failure of the Agriculture department. The Central and State governments have been compensating groundnut farmers with the input subsidy if their crops were damaged or if they incurred losses. The Central government had released Rs 60 crore towards input subsidy for the district during the year 2014. The amount was supposed to be disbursed to 1.98 lakh farmers by the Agriculture department in coordination with banks.

The officials disbursed Rs 50 crore to farmers and Rs 10 crore still lying with the department. No sincere efforts were made by the officials to disburse input subsidy amount. Meanwhile, the State government declared 53 mandals in the district as drought-hit for the year 2016. The YSRCP MLAs asked the officials of the Agriculture department to take effective measures for disbursement of input subsidy in the ZP general body meeting held here a week ago.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Saturday, Joint Director of Agriculture (JDA) Vijaya Kumar admitted that there were lapses in the disbursement of input subsidy pertaining to 2014. The JD said that input subsidy amount of Rs 10 crore was not spent as several farmers have migrated from the district and sizable number of farmers did not link their Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts. In 2015, the government sanctioned Rs 136 crore towards input subsidy for the district. Vijaya Kumar said that effective measures would be initiated for the speedy disbursement of subsidy amount which is expected to be released shortly.

Referring to the rain gun experiment in the district, the JD said that most of the withering groundnut was saved in the district because of rain guns operation. The government has come forward to sell the rain guns to the farmers with 60 per cent subsidy. He made an appeal to farmers to keep rain guns with them to save their groundnut crops in future.

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