The Andhra Pradesh Government headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy Thursday announced scrapping of a scheme launched by former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and introduced a new one in its place besides announcing crucial decisions related to the agriculture sector.
Major decisions included introduction of the 'Rythu Bharosa' scheme and creation of a Rs 3,000 crore Market Stabilisation Fund, according to a YSR Congress party release.
Also, Rs 7 lakh per head will be paid as ex-gratia under the new YSR Bima (insurance) scheme in case of death of a farmer.
The decisions were taken at a high-level review meeting on agriculture, chaired by the Chief Minister here Thursday, a release from his office said.
The ruling YSR Congress party decided to scrap the Annadata Sukhibhava scheme, launched just ahead of the general elections by the then Chandrababu Naidu government, and bring in the 'Rythu Bharosa' scheme in its place.
Under the new scheme, which is one of the electoral promises of the YSR Congress, farmers will be given an annual financial assistance of Rs 12,500 to meet the input costs.
The Chief Minister announced that the new scheme would be implemented from October 15 and not May 2020 as planned earlier.
It would cost the exchequer Rs 13,125 crore per annum.
Ahead of the Asssembly and Lok Sabha polls, the then Chandrababu Naidu government had announced sops for farmers by integrating a state programme with the Centre's, thereby enabling each ryot to get Rs 10,000 annually in two instalments.
It had approved the Annadata Sukhibhava scheme under which Rs 4,000 per annum will be disbursed to farmers in addition to Rs 6,000 announced by the Centre in its interim budget on February 1.
Jagan also announced that henceforth the state government would pay crop insurance premium for all farmers.
He also asked officials to set up a Market Stabilisation Fund with a corpus of Rs 3,000 crore to ensure farmers secured minimum support price on their produce, shielding them from price fluctuations.
The proposed Village Secretariats that are slated to become functional from October 2 would focus specially on the needs of farmers, besides delivering other government welfare schemes to people.
"The village volunteers (under the village secretariats) will be the face of the government and vehicles that deliver the welfare schemes to the people," the Chief Minister said.
Jagan also said an Agriculture Mission would be established with experts to study various aspects related to agriculture and allied sectors.
He asked the civil supplies department to work in close coordination with the agriculture department for better results.
Chief Ministers Principal Advisor Ajeya Kallam, Special Chief Secretary P V Ramesh, Agriculture Advisor T Vijay Kumar, Principal Secretary B Rajasekhar and other senior officials attended.
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