Funds worth Rs 100 cr included in Budget to help out farmers

Kolkata: Giving maximum stress on rural development and generation of employment opportunities, state Finance minister Amit Mitra presented the state Budget on Wednesday, proposing special funds worth Rs 100 crore to ensure that farmers do not incur loss in case there is excessive production of food grains and vegetables.

Later in a Press conference, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: "Many farmers suffer as they incur loss with excessive production of food grains and vegetables including potato, rice and onion. So, the special fund of Rs 100 crore is being created to provide financial support to farmers."

In a situation when there is over production of crops, farmers need to sell out their produce at a cheaper price. The step taken up by the state government to create the contingency fund will immensely help the farmers as they do not have to make distress sale.

It may be mentioned that in the past six years, Bengal has developed in the agriculture sector. The production of food grains has gone up and Bengal is the largest producer of vegetables in the country. In a bid to extend more support to farmers, it has also been proposed in the Budget to give exemption in payment of mutation fee for agricultural land sold for agriculture purposes.

While proposing the same, Mitra said that the rural economy is mostly cash dependent due to the virtual absence of banking services in rural areas. "Moreover, the rural economy was ruined and our farmers had to face severe economic distress due to demonetisation," Mitra said, adding that in a bid to give a relief to farmers, the state government had earlier announced exemption of khajna and cess. Now, the decision to exempt the mutation fee has been taken up.

Moreover, proposal has also been given to increase the amount of monthly pension of the aged farmers in the state. At present, around 66,000 elderly farmers get the pension. Proposal has been given to increase the monthly pension of Rs 750 to Rs 1,000.

At the same time, proposal has been given in the Budget that 34,000 more elderly farmers will also be given the pension. With the inclusion of these 34,000, the total number of elderly farmers who will be getting the pension, will go up to 1 lakh.

While speaking about the development undertaken by her government, the Chief Minister said: "Around 82 to 85 percent of the state is rural and it is our asset…With several steps being taken for development in the agriculture sector, the per capita income of farmers in Bengal has increased manifold."