'Krishak Bandhu scheme helped more than 66 lakh farmers'
Kolkata: Krishak Bandhu scheme, a brain child of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has provided financial benefits to over 66 lakh farmers across Bengal since its inception, state Finance minister Amit Mitra said.
He was addressing a gathering at the inauguration of 'Samabay Mela' in Netaji Indoor Stadium on Friday.
Mitra said the 'Krishak Bandhu' scheme is an unique project to extend financial assistance to the farmers and many other states have expressed their interest to replicate the scheme. "I don't find any state which has come up with such a comprehensive scheme for the farmers. Many other state governments are keen on introducing a similar scheme after being inspired by the Bengal government," Mitra said.
He also added that the state government has distributed Rs 601 crore among 38.77 lakh farmers and share-croppers in 2018 while in the current year around Rs 430 crore has been disbursed among 27.43 lakh farmers and share-croppers. The figure would go up till the current financial ends in March next year. Altogether 66.2 lakh farmers have been benefitted from the project which was initiated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
"The state government has already spent Rs 1031 crore for the 'Krishak Bandhu' scheme. The scheme was introduced following the direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who laid enormous stress on the socio-economic upliftment of the farmers across the state," Mitra said.
Krishak Bandhu scheme includes a compensation of Rs 2 lakh, in case of death of a farmer between the age
group of 18-60 and a
yearly cash assistance of Rs 5,000 per acre. Banerjee had announced that the sum of Rs 5,000 will be given in two installments of Rs 2,500 twice a year, for growing a single crop per acre of land.
The state has around 72 lakh farmers. The Mamata Banerjee government did not want the farmers to suffer by any means. Financial assistances are paid both in case of natural and unnatural deaths.
The average income of farmers in the state has gone up three times, following various social schemes introduced by the Mamata Banerjee government. According to the state Agriculture department, the average annual income of farmers has tripled from Rs 91,000 (in 2010-11) to Rs 2.91 lakh (in 2018).
