Madhya Pradesh to pare annual budget by 15%

The state will extend Rs 7,000 cr farm relief

Madhya Pradesh will cut its annual budget by 15% this year to compensate losses of farmers. The state has planned to extend a minimum Rs 7,000 crore support to drought-hit farmers this season. As many as 20,000 villages are said to have suffered from drought, scanty rainfall and even pest attack on soyabean crop.

State chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his government is committed to extending relief to farmers and would pare budget by 15% this year. It would not affect much, Chouhan said, if infrastructure creation process remains standstill for a year. But farmers, he said, could not wait longer. He said his government was committed to extend support of Rs 7,000 crore; Rs 3,000 crore for soyabean crop loss, Rs 3,000 crore against crop insurance and Rs 1,000 crore interest waiver this year. He has said the state government would pay interest on farm loans obtained by drought-hit farmers across the state.

High-level officials and cabinet rank ministers have been asked to conduct a state wide survey to report the crop loss in their constituencies.

Chouhan had recently announced that as many as 114 tehsils are drought-hit, thus a total of 20,000 villages (approximately) are badly affected due to bad weather condition.

The bad weather has largely affected soyabean crop, which is mainstay of farm economy of the state.

According to primary reports, Chouhan has said, 18 lakh hectare of soyabean crop is damaged due to bad weather and subsequent pest attack, moisture stress or poor germination.

This is the third consecutive year when kharif crop (125 lakh hectare) has been badly damaged. The state grows maize, coarse grains, pulses and oilseeds besides soyabean which had covered an acreage of 61 lakh hectare this year. State government has converted short term farm loans into mid-term loans and has asked state-owned banks to stall recovery of loans for a year.