Govt extends farmers package by two years

NEW DELHI: The centre on Wednesday decided to extend the timelimit to implement the Rs 16,978-crore rehabilitation package for suicide-prone districts of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh till September 2011.

The package, which was announced on September 29, 2006, involving an outlay of Rs 16,978 crore, comprising Rs 10,579 crore as subsidy and Rs 6,399 crore as loan, was to be implemented for a period of three years, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters.

Briefing reporters on the decision taken by the Cabinet at its meeting today, he said the package covers 31 districts of the four states. "Feedback recieved from the state governments and other implementing agencies indicate that implementation of the package has been satisfactory but is not likely to be implemented over a three year period," he said.

Besides, he said that there were suggestions to amend the existing interventions to make it sharper and improve the speed of implementation. "The principal modification is the package will be implemented over a five-year period ending September 30, 2011. Secondly, additional finacial support will be given to the concerned ministries and departments for implementation of the programmes included in the package," Chidambaram said.

He said the Cabinet has decided to double the per farmer area limit under the seed replacement scheme to two hectares.
"We think that the package can be implemented within the original cost. No additional money has been approved today," Finance Minister said.