Chandigarh, November 5: Haryana Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya has said that the State Government is committed to double the income of farmers by the year 2022 and promotion of agriculture and welfare of the farming community will be one of the major thrust areas of the State Government. He was speaking on the second day of the First Session of 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha at Chandigarh today. He congratulated and extended a hearty welcome to the newly elected members of the house while delivering his address.
The Governor said that as the hard-working farmers of Haryana gear up for the sowing of Rabi crops, the State Government has made arrangements for adequate quantities of all inputs including quality seeds and fertilizers. He urged the house to support and replicate the efforts of the State Government in urging the farmers to adhere to the recommended time schedule of agronomic practices.
Haryana Governor also urged the newly elected members of the Legislative Assembly to encourage the farmers in their constituencies to avail the benefits of three one-time settlement schemes before November 30.
Arya said that at present, three one-time settlement schemes are being run by the State Government to help the farmers, who had defaulted on loan repayments. So far about 75,000 farmers have availed the benefits of complete interest and penal interest waiver amounting to 220 crore rupees. Further, such farmers have also become eligible for crop and other loans from the Cooperative Banks and Societies. He further said that under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna, in Rabi season 2018-2019, claims worth 1,998 crore rupees have been settled against farmers’ share of premium payment amounting to 646 crore rupees. Similarly, under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna, over 14 lakh farmers are getting the benefit of financial assistance of 6,000 rupees per annum and over 3.9 lakh of farmers are registered under Pardhan Mantri Maan Dhan Yojna and in which a pension of 3,000 rupees per month is provided after attaining the age of 60 years.
The Governor said that Haryana is unique in the country to give remunerative prices for the crops. The State Government machinery actively purchases not only wheat and paddy but also other crops such as Mustard Seed, Sunflower Seed, Bajra, Moong, Maize, at Minimum Support Prices. Apart from this, the Bhavantar Bharpai Yojna covers also the crops of potato, tomato, cauliflower, and onion.
Arya said that the State Government also intends to continue with these efforts and also to include guava, carrot and peas within the ambit of the latter. He said that the Government will set up commodity specific markets like a modern apple market at Pinjore, flower market at Gurugram and spices market at Sonipat and accelerate the development on the International Horticulture Mandi at Gannaur. He said that with a view to further harness Information Technology to provide comprehensive revenue records of Jamabandi, Mutations and Khasra Girdavari in a user-friendly manner, the Haryana Government will take up a comprehensive GIS mapping.
He also said that the digitization of age-old Revenue Records and modernization of Revenue Record Rooms will be completed in a time-bound manner.