Chhattisgarh Assembly passes supplementary budget

Chhattisgarh Assembly today passed a second supplementary budget of over Rs 2,100 crore for the financial year 2017-18, for payment of bonus to paddy farmers in the state which is facing a drought-like situation.
In view of the deficient rainfall this monsoon, the BJP government had announced a bonus to farmers before Diwali for the paddy procured in the last (2016-17) kharif season.
A one-day special session of the Assembly was convened today to facilitate a budgetary allocation of over Rs 2,100 crore, to be distributed to around 13.5 lakh farmers.
Chief Minister Raman Singh, who also holds the finance portfolio, tabled the supplementary budget of Rs 2101,54,77,100. After a day-long discussion, it was passed with a voice vote.

Singh said the bonus will be a great relief for farmers as a major part of the state is reeling under a severe drought.
His government has prepared a roadmap to ensure doubling of farmers' income before 2022 as announced by the Prime Minister, and efforts will be made to achieve the target by 2020 itself, he said.

Around 13.5 lakh farmers would get a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal of paddy sold to the state government, he said.
In other relief measures, rural population will be provided work for 200 days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme instead of the current 100 days' work which the scheme guarantees, he said.

The government is also providing a bonus to sugarcane farmers and tendu leaf collectors, he said.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition T S Singhdeo (Congress) alleged that the government is not serious about the bonus. The BJP had made the promise of bonus of Rs 300 and the minimum support price of Rs 2,100 to farmers in its manifesto during the 2013 Assembly polls, so the government should have announced the bonus for 2014-15 and 2015-16 also, he said.
Farmers should get the bonus for the paddy procured in the last three years, the Congress leader demanded.