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maan Lateef
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, February 14
The state government has started enrolling farmers to implement the Centrally-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PMKSN) — a minimum income scheme for small and marginal farmers — even as the demand for crop insurance scheme remains.
The government has roped in revenue and agriculture officers to prepare the database of the farmers and upload the data before February 22. Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam has also allotted Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh for each divisional commissioner and deputy commissioner, respectively, to meet expenses on account of the collection, digitisation, scrutiny, and uploading of documents of the beneficiaries on the PMKSN portal.
Under the scheme, each farmer will get Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments from the Centre, if his or her land holding is two acres.
Welcoming implementation of the PMKSN scheme, Sopore Fruit Mandi president Fayaz Malik said the government had ignored the introduction of crop insurance scheme which had been a long-pending demand of apple growers. “Despite being the backbone of the J&K’s economy, the government has added miseries to the horticulture sector instead of promoting it. We have suffered huge losses due to bad weather and lack of demand in outside markets but no help has come from the government,” Malik said. He said the government should come up with a crop Insurance scheme to provide minimum possible monetary help to farmers and apple growers due to losses by bad weather.
Officials say the two instalments of Rs 2,000 each will be deposited in the accounts of the farmers on March 1 and April 1.