State sanctions Rs 168 crore towards relief under National Agricultural Insurance Scheme

The move is expected to bring respite to the ryots in Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, and Cuddalore. 

The State has paid Rs 52.4 crore towards Premium Subsidy in the said scheme for 2015 – 2016 to an insurance company, which has worked out the total compensation to be paid as Rs 403 crore to 6,88,763 farmers covered under the scheme. The rest of the money will be shared between the Centre (Rs 168.6 crore) and the insurance firm (Rs 66 crore).

The GO dated April 28, sanctioning the release of funds, was issued by Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Agricultural Production Commissioner. An official source told DTNext that the farmers’ primary demand was relief, to which the State had sanctioned Rs 2,247 crore out of which Rs 1,725 crore had already been directly debited to the farmers bank accounts. 

“The cultivation will continue only in the borewell irrigated parts, whereas river-fed cultivation will be totally affected. In Cauvery-delta region, we expect cultivation in Mayiladuthurai, northern Thanjavur, and northern Thiruvarur”, said an official. 

The state is also incentivising farmers to go in for drip irrigation with 100 per cent subsidy for small and marginal farmers, focusing on micro-irrigation, and 75 per cent for the rest of the farmers who opt in. “For this purpose alone, we have an outlay of Rs 394 crore to cover 70,990 hectare (1 hectare = 2.47 acre),” said another official.