Chennai: Faced with a grave agrarian crisis primarily stemming from the failure of northeast monsoon, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Tuesday announced that Tamil Nadu will be declared “drought-hit” state, while announcing a comprehensive relief package that includes monetary assistance to farmers.
In a detailed statement, Panneerselvam also announced land tax would be totally waived for farmers across the state, increasing the working days under MNREGA from the current 100 to 150, allocation of Rs 3,400 crore for desilting water bodies that would ensure work for agricultural labourers and schemes to mitigate water crisis and increase ground water table.
Admitting that 17 farmers have committed suicide in the past two months due to “various reasons”, the Chief Minister announced a relief of Rs 3 lakh each to the next of the kin and said he has sought a report from district collectors on media reports about death of farmers due to shock after their crops withered. “After getting the reports from district collectors, the farmers will be duly compensated,” Panneerselvam said.
The decision to compensate farmers for their losses was taken after high-level committees comprising of bureaucrats and ministers submitted their reports following their visit to affected areas in the state. The NE monsoon bid farewell to the state last week marking a deficiency of 62 per cent.
“Since the entire state has been affected due to deficient rainfall, all districts of Tamil Nadu will be announced drought-affected. Land tax of the farmers in all districts will be completely waived-off. Since farmers won’t be able to pay their loans, all crop loans availed from cooperative and commercial banks will be converted into mid-term loans,” the CM said.
Cooperative banks across the state have lent loans worth Rs 3,028 crore this year. The state government would seek financial assistance from the Union Government since lot of financial resource is needed to bring the state out of drought, Mr Panneerselvam, adding that a detailed memorandum in this regard would soon be sent to the Central Government.
Recalling an earlier Government Order on damage to crops, the CM that paddy farmers and those who had sowed other irrigated crops and have suffered over 33 per cent loss will be provided with Rs 5,465 per acre, as relief while it will be Rs 7,287 for long-term crops. While assuring that ‘crop cutting experiment’ will be expedited to ensure farmers who had insured their crops get the money from the companies, the CM said steps are being taken to provide crop insurance.
Panneerselvam also allocated Rs 5 crore for boosting fodder and drinking water resources to wildlife, Rs 25 crore for improving groundwater table and to boost drinking water resources, Rs 78 crore for the fodder to cattle, Rs 160 crore for augmenting resources for drinking water in urban areas and Rs 350 crore in rural areas.
