Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Sunday said a total of Rs 277 crore has been approved for disbursement to farmers in the state under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the PM-KISAN scheme here, Palaniswami said the state government has uploaded details of over 22 lakh farmers in the Central government’s website.
He said after verification, the first instalment of Rs 2,000 was disbursed on Sunday.
“To date, a sum of Rs 277 crore has been approved for disbursement,” Palaniswami said.
Listing out the various agricultural schemes of the state government, he also said the government would be setting up a multi-disciplinary animal husbandry park in Salem district.
Palaniswami said the park would be set up over a 900-acre plot at an outlay of Rs 396 crore.
He said the proposed park would have an advanced veterinary hospital and modern cattle, poultry, domestic dog, bull breeds, sheep, goat farms to explain to the farmers about their scientific rearing.
Palaniswami said there would be a centre to deal with refrigeration of milk, fish and eggs.
Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said the PM-KISAN scheme is a historic one and a boon for the farmers.
Palaniswami expressed his heartfelt thanks to Modi for the scheme that would provide income support of Rs 6,000 per year to be disbursed in three equal instalments.
The scheme shows care shown by Modi for the Indian farmers.
“This historic programme which is designed to provide assured income support to small and marginal farmers all over the country entails an annual outlay of Rs 75,000 crore,” said Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
“With this, there is a substantial addition to the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture which goes up from Rs 58,080 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 1,41,174 crore in 2019-2020,” Purohit said.
He said the PM-KISAN programme is being made effective from December 1, 2018 and the first instalment for the period up to March 31, 2019 would be paid during this financial year itself.
“A sum of Rs 20,000 crore has been proposed for 2018-19 for this. From 2019-20, the benefit will be transferred to bank accounts through Aadhar-based database,” Purohit said.
Union Minister for Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan also participated in the function.
[source_without_link]IANS[/source_without_link]