Hyderabad, January 15: Loan eligibility cards will be issued to tenant farmers by next kharif season, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has said.
In an open letter to people of the state on the eve of Sankranti today, the chief minister said the government had set for itself a target of sanctioning crop loans to the tune of Rs. 59,000 crore next financial year and completion of 43 irrigation projects in the next three years. He hoped that the Polavaram project would get national project status.
The chief minister said his government knew that the state’s economy would do well only when the farm sector is adequately taken care of. The state government has prepared a plan to disburse Rs.50,000 worth crop loans in the next financial year.
The chief minister felt that Chevella-Pranahita and Polavaram projects would make the farmers’ life quite comfortable. “It would be Sankranti every day for farmers,” he said.
Both the Centre and the state government are farmer-friendly, he pointed out.
He recalled the services of late YS Rajasekhara Reddy in helping the farm sector acquire dignity that it deserved. As a result of his policies, agriculture became a remunerative avocation for farmers and the land value too had upped because of irrigation facility. The present government was following the policies of Rajasekhara Reddy, he said. After the introduction of crop insurance, as many as 36.5 lakh farmers were benefited to a tune of Rs.2,700 crore, he said.
He said it was heartening to note that the Pulichintala project had been accorded clearance by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for its revised estimates. With this, all obstacles have been cleared for according national project status, he said. The state government was working with the same kind of determination to get all clearances for Chevella-Pranahita, he said.
–Agencies