Staff Reporter,
Guwahati, August 25: In a bid to boost rural economy in the state, Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma today held a meeting with the officials of Agriculture Department and Chief Minister’s Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana (CMSGUY) at Janata Bhawan and discussed several key initiatives aimed at supporting the needs of farmers at the grass root level. Chief Minister Dr. Sarma reviewed the measures proposed by the Agriculture department for setting up Rice Mills, providing Combine Harvesters and Mini Trucks to Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs), which are groups of small and marginal farmers during the meeting. He stressed to scale up support to farmers and build an ecosystem that facilitates enhanced paddy procurement and promotes export of farm products. He also gave several directions to make the proposed initiatives more useful and affordable to farmers. The Chief Minister said that the state government would extend support to set up 50 rice mills with 200 MT milling capacity in the state. This scheme will be promoted in convergence with CMSGUY and Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) with subsidies ranging from 10 lakh to 40 lakh depending on the capacity of the mill. The state government would also sponsor setting up 1000 mini rice mills under AIF, Dr. Sarma said. For such mills subsidy upto 1.17 Lakh per mill will be provided. On the otherhand, as proposed by the Agriculture department Combine Harvesters will be provided to FPCs for which subsidy up to 90% will be provided. The Chief Minister also asked the Department to carry out the scheme for providing Mini Trucks to FPCs to use the same for agricultural purposes with subsidy to the tune of 30% or Rs. 1.5 lakh whichever is less. Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, Finance Minister Ajanta Neog, Additional Chief Secretary FCS&CS BR Samal, Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Dr. Asish Kumar Bhutani, Principal Secretary to CM Samir Kumar Sinha, CEO CMSGUY Padmapani Bora and other officials were present in the meeting. Earlier, the Chief Minister also held a meeting with officials of the Finance Department for identification of projects under NIDA (NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance), RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) and RIAS (Rural Infrastructure Assistance to State Governments). Projects such as 2000 nos of Anganwadi Centres, Old Age Home at Boko, Tourism Project at Jongalbolohu Garh, Stadium at Chandrapur etc. were discussed to take up under NIDA during the meeting. Dr. Sarma also asked the officials to expedite release of funds under RIDF and identify income generating and livelihood projects for taking up under RIAS.
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