Farmers can now choose contractor to implement ‘Ganga Kalyana’ scheme

D Deveraj Urs Backward Classes Development Corporation Chairman R Raghu Kautilya said marginal and small farmers will be given ‘freedom’ to select a contractor to implement the ‘Ganga Kalyana’ scheme in State.

Speaking to media persons here on Sunday, he said a decision in this regard has been taken in the cabinet and would be announced soon. Funds also have been allocated for the same in the recently announced budget, he said and added that earlier, the beneficiaries were made to run around the contractors to dig borewells in their field.

“Henceforth contractors will rush to the doorsteps of farmers to dig borewell,” he said and added that the government will select six to seven agencies in each district to implement the project and the farmers will be given permission to select any of the enlisted agencies. “This revolutionary decision is expected to bring transparency in the scheme, which has been seeing a lot of backlogging and hurdles,” he said.

The government provides Rs 2 lakh subsidy for a marginal farmer to dig a borewell along with Rs 50,000 loan at 4 per cent interest.

Unlike the present scenario, where one agency digs the borewell another installs the pump and the third energise the borewell, the government has decided to allow one single agency to complete the entire process. And the entire process has to be completed in the stipulated time, he said.

Raghu said the Corporation aims to train at least 100 people per month with various skills that can help them get employment or entrepreneurial opportunity. The corporation aims to train more than one lakh people from the 206 communities that come under the corporation’s jurisdiction.

He said since 2013, the Corporation has pending due of more than Rs 400 crore from the beneficiaries, who have not repaid the loans taken under various schemes. “We are chalking out plans to recover these dues over the next one year. The corporation will first offer the beneficiaries to voluntarily repay the loan. If they fail, we will be forced to use legal remedies,” he said, and added that there are no proposals in front of the Corporation to waiver loans/interest and the beneficiaries have to understand that repaying of the loan will help members of their own community to grow.