Rs 232-crore relief package for drought-hit farmers

The State government on Monday announced a Rs 232-crore compensation package for small and marginal farmers who suffered crop losses due to drought.

A decision to this effect was taken at a Cabinet sub-committee meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa.

On Saturday, former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, after his tour of the drought-hit districts, had said that the government should be doing “more” to help the farmers in distress.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Eshwarappa, who holds the Revenue and the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj portfolios, said the package would benefit as many as 23.2 lakh farmers in the State.

A compensation of Rs 1,000 per acre for loss of agricultural crop and Rs 2,000 per acre for loss of horticultural crop would be provided by the government, he said.

The compensation would come in the form of agriculture input subsidy on the purchases made by farmers for the next sowing.

Recruitments

The sub-committee also gave its nod for recruiting 700 civil engineers and 700 agriculture and horticulture assistant technical officers to expedite drought relief work. Besides, the government will recruit 2,200 data entry operators.

While engineering graduates will be paid a salary of Rs 20,000, non-engineering graduates will get Rs 12,000 a month. Data entry operators will be paid a salary of Rs 6,500. The recruitment process will be completed within four weeks, he said.

Giving an update on the drought relief work, Eshwarappa said the government had completed 1.67 lakh works, including those taken up under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the drought-hit districts. As many as 79 fodder banks and 219 goshalas had been opened, Eshwarappa said.

Deputy commissioners have been given the permission to draw up to Rs 1.5 crore as advance for tackling drinking water and fodder shortage, Eshwarappa said. They have also been directed to initiate hydrofracturing operations in areas where borewells have dried up due to severe depletion of groundwater level.

While the State government had sought Rs 3,609 crore for drought relief last year, the Centre had released Rs 352 crore.

“This year, we have sought Rs 11,200 crore to take up short and long-term measures to tackle drought,” Eshwarappa said and pointed out that the Centre had not released any grants during the current financial year.

Speaking at a function, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said the government would soon
revive neglected or unattended irrigation projects in a bid to increase the storage of water in tanks.

He said he would visit Bijapur next week to monitor tank-filling projects in the
district.