VIJAYAWADA: Ahead of polls, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has increased the financial assistance for farmers having less than 5 acres of land under the ‘Annadata Sukhibhava’ scheme. Along with the Rs 6,000 annual assistance announced by the Centre under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme recently, Naidu said small and marginal farmers would get a total of Rs 15,000 a year.
Instead of earlier announced financial assistance of Rs 4,000 a year to those who own less than 5 acres of land, the government will now extend Rs 9,000 annually. Speaking after laying the foundation for Muktyala Lift Irrigation Scheme (LIS) via video link from Undavalli on Saturday, Naidu said the government would transfer Rs 4,000 into farmers’ accounts before the elections and the remaining after the polls.
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The Chief Minister said while interacting with farmers from Muktyala via video link that “In addition to the assistance announced by the Centre, which is inadequate, we announced Rs 4,000 to those who own less than 5 acres so that they would get a total of Rs 10,000. Similarly, the Centre did not extend any support to farmers who own more than 5 acres of land, but we announced Rs 10,000 for them. We had planned to extend Rs 10,000 uniformly to all farmers, but keeping in mind the problems being faced by small and marginal peasants, we have now decided to hike the earlier announced Rs 4,000 to Rs 9,000,”. Naidu said the TDP government stood by farmers in times of distress. He noted “We have procured foodgrains damaged in Phethai cyclone even though the Centre did not come forward,”.
Besides extending welfare initiatives to ensure better income to farmers, the State government has spent close to Rs 70,000 crore on irrigation projects to provide water to all fields in the State, Naidu explained. As the government had done a lot for the farming community in the last four-and-a-half years, Naidu urged the farmers to support the TDP in the coming elections.
