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While the scanty rainfall prediction has come as a big disappointment, farmers in Chhattisgarh have still reasons to smile.
The state government has announced a bonus of Rs 300 for a quintal of paddy sold to the societies in the last kharif marketing season.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had included the bonus sop in its election manifesto for the state polls held in November 2013. Though the BJP government had asked for Rs 2100 as a minimum support price (MSP) for a quintal of paddy, the demand was put under cold carpet after its party-led government came to power in New Delhi.
Instead, the state government had decided to release the fund and pay the bonus announced for the farmers. "The department of food and civil supplies has issued the order on Tuesday in this connection," a state government spokesperson said, adding that the bonus would be distributed to the farmers in phases.In the first phase, 50 per cent bonus would be paid to the farmers.
The state government had set the deadline and asked the authorities to distribute the first installment of bonus latest by July 15. The food and civil supplies department had released Rs 1196 crore to the state-run marketing federation for distributing bonus to the farmers.
The beneficiaries include those who had sold paddy in the primary cooperative societies set up by the federation to procure the yield at the MSP in the kharif marketing season 2013-14.
