Maya’s Rs 136-cr plan to clock 5.7% farm growth

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Lucknow, Jul 4 : Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati blamed continuous negligence of the agriculture sector by previous governments for its dwindling growth rate. Setting a target of achieving more than 5.7% growth rate under the 11th Five Year Plan, she said that for achieving this target, proper arrangement of irrigation facility to farmers was necessary.

Keeping this in view, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday sanctioned Rs 136 crore for the implementation of a new package that will benefit as many as 20,000 farmers during the current financial year.

Announcing the scheme, Mayawati said the assistance amount payable for energising private tubewells is also being increased from Rs 55,000 to Rs 68,000. Under this scheme, the farmers will not be required to spend any additional amount except the connection charges and the line will be provided up to 300 metre free of cost. The chief minister said the condition of two farmers obtaining a connection under this scheme has been done away with, and now a single farmer can avail the facility for his private use. She said that this scheme had solved a major problem of the farmers.

The scheme, which is being run through the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation, had provided Rs 43,000 as financial assistance per farmer in 2004-05 and had been increased to Rs 55,000 in 2007-08. It has now been increased to Rs 68,000. She said with the availability of irrigation facility in unirrigated areas, production and farmers' income will increase.