CM Himanta Biswa Sarma orders enhanced assistance to farmers

GUWAHATI: In a bid to boost the rural economy of the State, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday held a meeting with officials of the Agriculture Department and Chief Minister's Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana (CMSGUY) at Janata Bhawan here and discussed several key initiatives aimed at supporting the needs of farmers at the grass-root level.

The Chief Minister reviewed the measures proposed by the Agriculture Department for setting up rice mills, providing combine harvesters and mini trucks to Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs), which are groups of small and marginal farmers. He stressed on scaling up support to farmers and building an ecosystem that facilitates enhanced paddy procurement and promotes export of farm products. He also gave several directions to make the proposed initiatives more useful and affordable to farmers.

Sarma said that the State Government would extend support to set up 50 rice mills with 200 MT milling capacity in the State. This scheme will be promoted in convergence with CMSGUY and Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) with subsidy ranging from 10 lakh to Rs 40 lakh depending on the capacity of the mill.

The State Government would also sponsor setting up 1,000 mini rice mills under AIF, Sarma said. For such mills subsidy up to Rs 1.17 lakh per mill will be provided. On the other hand, as proposed by the Agriculture Department, combine harvesters will be provided to FPCs for which subsidy up to 90% will be provided.

The Chief Minister also asked the Department to carry out the scheme for providing mini trucks to FPCs to use them for agricultural purpose with subsidy to the tune of 30% or Rs. 1.5 lakh, whichever is less.

Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, Finance Minister Ajanta Neog, Additional Chief Secretary FCS&CS BR Samal, Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Asish Kumar Bhutani, Principal Secretary to CM Samir Kumar Sinha, CEO CMSGUY Padmapani Bora and other officials were present in the meeting.

Earlier, the Chief Minister also held a meeting with officials of Finance Department for identification of projects under NIDA (NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance), RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) and RIAS (Rural Infrastructure Assistance to State Governments). Projects such as 2,000 Anganwadi Centres, old age home at Boko, tourism project at Jongalbolohu Garh, a stadium at Chandrapur etc., were discussed during the meeting. Sarma also asked the officials to expedite release of fund under RIDF and identify income generating and livelihood projects for being taken up under RIAS, state an official communiqué.

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