Chhattisgarh announces tax sops for drought-hit farmers

State waives off irrigation and land-revenue taxes; announces conversion of short-term farm loan into medium-term

The Chhattisgarh government today issued a notification to waive off irrigation and land-revenue taxes in the areas hit by drought in the state.

Chief Minister Raman Singh announced waiving off of these taxes in a bid to provide relief to the farmers. He also announced steps to employ villagers for up to 200 days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), besides converting short-term farm loan into medium-term.

“The departments of water resources and revenue and disaster management, today, issued the notification to waive off the irrigation and land-revenue taxes,” a spokesperson with the state government said. The order would come into immediate effect, he added.

The state had declared 117 of 150 tehsils as drought-hit, following low yield, as a major part of Chhattisgarh received below normal rainfall this year. It is the first time in the state’s history that a large chunk of it was declared drought-hit. 

The Centre had approved a financial assistance relief of Rs 1,672 crore for Chhattisgarh to deal with the drought against the state’s demand of Rs 4,000-crore package. It had also sent a detailed report to substantiate the claim.  The state had also made a provision of Rs 1,350 crore from its exchequer to deal with the situation. The provision was made in the second Supplementary Budget that was passed in the recently-concluded Winter Session of the state legislative assembly.