Thiruvananthapuram: Agriculture minister V. S. Sunil Kumar said that a monetary package without any norms would be demanded from the Central government in the wake of the recent floods that devastated the farming sector in the state. He informed that Kerala Agriculture University has submitted a comprehensive report to the government on the outcome of floods where crops worth Rs 19,000 crore damages have occurred.
On Monday, the recommendations put forth by the various commodity boards which probed on the damages met during the floods would be submitted to agriculture minister and commerce ministers. The coordinated works of different departments, research bodies and KAU’s findings would be taken into consideration by the Agricultural Interv-ention Coordination committee which has been formed now. “14 lakh farmers have been directly and indirectly affected in the recent floods. Under these circumstances, the State government will demand before the Centre to minimise the norms usually applied while sanctioning monetary packages”, said Sunil Kumar.
He also informed that the Centre should provide monetary package where Central schemes are given as one time grant or in the ratio of 90:10 as being granted to the North Indian states. Following the floods, the agriculture department has been successful in having intervention at the field level in Thrissur and Ernakulam districts. The agriculture ministry has decided to emulate the works initiated by the agriculture officers to the remaining districts where floods hit people.
