Chennai: Continuing with his slew of announcements ahead of the Assembly polls, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today announced 24-hour three-phase free power supply for agricultural pumpsets from 1 April.
Inaugurating the Rs 565 crore Mettur surplus water scheme, he stressed that three-phase power supply was very important for farmers and announced that 24 hour free power supply would be provided to farmers from 1 April.
Stating that the ruling AIADMK was a government that hich fulfills the requirement of farmers, the Chief Minister also listed out various welfare schemes launched for the benefit of the farming community.
He said the AIADMK government had created a historic milestone by settling the Cauvery dispute and that it was his government that declared the delta region as a protected agriculture zone.
AIADMK government was the only one that had waived farm loans twice during a five-year term, he said.
Recalling that former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa promised to waive off farm loans in the election manifesto during the 2016 elections and it was implemented soon after she assumed charge, Palaniswami said now, considering the requests of farmers, crop loans to the tune of Rs 12,110 crore availed by farmers in cooperative banks have been waived, benefitting about 16.44 lakh farmers.
Meanwhile, Palaniswami today announced that the gold loan took by the farmers will be waived off.
Making the announcement under the Rule 110 during the Zero hour of the Assembly today, Palaniswami said that loans that were availed in the cooperative banks for gold less than six sovereigns will be waived off.
Similarly he also announced that the loan got by Women Self Help groups will also be waived off.
Palaniswami recently announced that crop loans to the tune of Rs 12,110 crore, availed by as many as 16.43 lakh farmers through cooperative banks, would be waived.
After a year of the pandemic, the farmers were subsequently hit hard by two cyclones — Nivar and Burevi — and the non-seasonal rains in January.
Palaniswami, making the announcement under Rule 110 during the zero hour in the State Assembly, assured that the crop loan waiver would be enforced immediately by issuing a Government Order (GO) and the financial allocation for the same would be made in the Interim Budget for 2021-22. A Government Order on this regard was also released recently.