Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would not be able to attend the meeting of Sub-Group of Chief Ministers scheduled to be held on Thursday, as she had received the notice in the connection on July 10, when she was in North Bengal for administrative review meetings.
Banerjee, however, gave her suggestions for consideration in the meeting.
In the letter, the Chief Minister stated that she had received a notice from NITI Aayog on July 10 in the evening, for the meeting to be held on July 12 at 11 am in New Delhi.
The meeting is of the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers, for coordination of policy approach on agriculture sector and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
She has further stated that "since the notice for the meeting has been received very late and I am already away from the state headquarters, visiting a number of districts in North Bengal for holding administrative review meetings, it would not be possible for me to attend the meeting on July 12."
After stating that it would not be possible for her to turn up in the meeting, the Chief Minister has given her suggestions. She has strongly urged that in 100 days work under MGNREGS, another 100 days work may be allowed for better convergence of the agriculture and horticulture sectors, for enhancement of farmers' income and livelihood.
She also suggested: "All attempts have to be made to increase the income of the farmers substantially within the shortest possible time and for this purpose, all the programmes of the government have to be converged on welfare of farmers."
She also stressed on adequate budgetary provision by the Centre, to ensure that individual loans for farmers, especially small and marginal ones, is waived.
At the same time, minimum support price for procurement of major crops of different states must be declared and an institutional mechanism may be put in place to ensure that the farmers get the minimum support price, besides ensuring Kisan Credit Cards for all farmers with provision of Rs 2 lakh average loan.
Subsidy should be given for exports of farmers' produce, she suggested, adding that there should also be schemes for water harvesting.
Citing example of the Bengal's government's Jal Dharo Jal Bharo scheme, she stated that "schemes for recharging ground water should be taken up as priority through convergence and MGNREGS funds should be used along with other departmental funds for this purpose."