Karnataka govt to pay Rs 3,000 each to 16 lakh small and marginal farming families

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The Karnataka government, for the first time, has decided to pay Rs 3,000 each to 16 lakh agricultural families involved in small and marginal farming to compensate for the loss of their livelihood due to drought, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said on Thursday.

With the rains picking up in the state, he also said that the government has designed measures to prevent loss of life due to lightning strikes.

"There are about 16 lakh families of small and marginal farmers involved in dry farming. It has been decided to give Rs 3,000 each to these families to compensate for the loss of their livelihood due to drought, and officials have been directed to take action in this regard immediately," Gowda said.

While speaking to reporters here, he said, "This will be paid to farmers from both SDRF and NDRF funds, and also funds from the state government. It will be about Rs 460 crore. Officers have been directed to work this out. This is being done for the first time. But, there is a provision for it in the drought manual."

Karnataka had declared 223 out of 240 taluks as drought-hit; 196 of them were categorised as severely drought affected.

Noting that all together about Rs 4,300 crore would be credited to the accounts of the farmers as relief, the minister said it may take 20 days to complete this process, and already about Rs 3,000 crore has been deposited to the bank accounts of over 32 lakh farmers.

He said, "After going to the Supreme Court and the legal fight, so far about Rs 3,454 crore has come (from the Centre) as drought relief, which the government has started depositing in t bank accounts of farmers."