JOIN USPranab hints at cheaper farm credit
Speaking after laying foundation stone for the Rs 790-cr Medical Education Complex of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation here on Saturday, Mukherjee said the government would be in a position to reap the benefit of good growth rates by extending farm loans at cheaper interest rate.
The minister said the projected high growth rates should translate into more employment, more food production, better educational facilities and proper health care. He emphasised that there was a dire need to extend irrigation facilities and fertilisers at affordable prices.
Mukherjee said after the initiatives like Right to Information Act, MNREGS, Right To Education Act, the UPA government was heading for enacting Right to Food Act to ensure food security to all the 120 crore people of India. Once the Act was passed by the Parliament the BPL families will get 25 kg of rice/wheat at the rate of Rs 3 kg per month.
Incentives to farmers
“To ensure food security there should be more production of food. It needs lot of incentives to farmers. Now farmers can avail direct subsidy on fertiliser and in near future they would be able to get credit at a cheaper interest of four per cent,’’ he said. He however did not elaborate on the issue.
The GDP growth rate which was 7.2 per cent last year is expected to be 8.5 per cent in the current fiscal. The industrial growth rate of mere 2.8 per cent last year has already reached 10.6 per cent this year and is expected to settle at 15 to 16 per cent in the near future.
He noted that one per cent industrial growth implies creation of few lakhs of jobs, he said. The Minister disclosed that the government had another ambitious plan of equipping youth with necessary skills to make them more employable.
A massive skill development programme has been launched and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has fixed the target to provide necessary skills to 500 million youths by the year 2022.
The Medical Education complex on 30 acres of Gulbarga University campus comprises medical, dental, nursing colleges and a super speciality hospital.
Union Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha Rehman Khan, former chief minister Dharam Singh, ministers B N Bache Gowda, Govind Karjol, Revu Nayak Belmagi and Opposition leader Siddaramaiah were present. In the absence of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, Medical Education Minister Ramachandra Gowda read out his speech.
DH News Service