Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik discussed with the district Collectors on Tuesday over video conferencing about paddy procurement, drought compensation, insurance and impact of demonetisation on agriculture.
The district Collectors of Ganjam, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Balangir told that the agricultural activities have been badly affected due to unavailability of adequate quantity of `100 and `500 notes in banks and ATMs in the rural areas. The farmers are particularly facing difficulties in paying crop insurance premiums, wages to the labourers and purchase of seed and fertiliser.
Expressing concern over the matter, Chief Minister Patnaik asked the officials of the RBI and other banks present in the meeting to take steps to pump more cash into the rural areas.
He also asked the Chief Secretary to take periodic review of the impact of the cash crunch situation on the agricultural activities and take suitable step to ease the woes of the rural people. The Chief Minister was apprised that Rs 72 crore has been paid to 2, 13, 494 farmers as special assistance for crop loss during the drought in Kharif 2015-16. About 2, 28,030 farmers were affected during the time and they will get `100 per quintal as drought aid. The Chief Minister asked the officials to provide the drought assistance to the rest of the farmers by December 17.
Patnaik also advised the district Collectors to ensure that the farmers face no difficulties during the ongoing paddy procurement season. He asked them to all steps for hassle-free procurement and disbursement of dues to the farmers. He also stressed on review of the procurement in every 15 days.
For the 2015 Kharif period, `1,776 crore has been sanctioned for crop insurance to the farmers and 11.61 lakh farmers will be benefitted by this. Already `1,124 crore has been transferred to the account of 7 lakh farmers so far, the Chief Minister was told. Patnaik asked the officials to ensure that the insurance sum is paid to all the farmers by December 20. He also asked for a block level awareness programme about the decision of the Government to provide loan to the farmers at 1 per cent interest. Among others, Excise and Cooperation Minister Dr Damodar Rout, Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathy and Revenue Minister Bijayashree Routray were present.