Tamil Nadu: Rs 403 crore to be disbursed as drought relief for farmers
Chennai: Tamil Nadu on Thursday kick-started the distribution of drought compensation for farmers through electronic clearance system. A corpus of about Rs 403 crore is now being dispatched to farmers in delta districts and parts of the state.
Nagappatinam and Thiruvarur will get the lion's share as a drought disaster relief and a total of 2.96 lakh farmers have been identified as beneficiaries, a senior official told Deccan Chronicle.
Nagapattinam farmers will get Rs 205 crore. For Tiruvarur Rs 101 crore is allotted. Cuddalore and Tiruvallur will get Rs 45.15 and Rs 25.38 crores respectively.
The compensation distribution, under the first phase, will cover 22 districts excluding Chennai and the centre has already released their share of funds.
According to secretariat sources, the state in the past three days has issued close to half a dozen government orders releasing funds for the farmers, fishermen and those depending on horticulture. In a related development, the state also proposed to cover 23.90 lakh farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana scheme during the year 2017-18.
The state had also initiated efforts to bring in more cropped areas under the insurance scheme and Rs 522 crore is estimated to be the cost for fiscal 2017-18, sources said.
It may be noted that on Monday, the state utilising the central funds sanctioned Rs 500 crore package for TN fishermen to convert their boats into deep sea fishing vessels.
