REDUCTION IN INCIDENCE OF FARMERS' SUICIDES IN VIDARBHA ?
Link - HTTP://WWW.NEWKERALA.COM/NEWS5.PHP?ACTION=FULLNEWS&ID=31711
MUMBAI, MAY 21: THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE (PMO) HAS EXPRESSED SATISFACTION OVER THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SPECIAL FINANCIAL PACKAGE TO DISTRICTS IN VIDARBHA THAT ARE PRONE TO SUICIDES BY FARMERS.
THE PMO RECENTLY REVIEWED THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PACKAGE, AN OFFICIAL RELEASE ISSUED HERE TODAY SAID.
IT SAID DUE TO EFFECTIVE STEPS TAKEN BY THE STATE GOVERNMENT, THE NUMBER OF SUICIDES DUE TO AGRICULTURE-RELATED PROBLEMS, THAT WERE AROUND 60 A MONTH, HAS COME DOWN TO 20.
PMO ALSO NOTED THAT CHIEF MINISTER VILASRAO DESHMUKH WAS PERSONALLY MONITORING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PACKAGE.
OF THE TOTAL PACKAGE FO RS 3,650 CRORE, ABOUT 40 PER CENT (RS 1,526 CR) HAVE BEEN SPENT IN THE LAST NINE MONTHS. THE PMO HAS SAID THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PACKAGE IN THE FIRST YEAR HAS BEEN SATISFACTORY. THE STATE GOVERNMENT HAS MADE IT CLEAR THAT IT WILL ACHIEVE THE TARGET OF 75 PER CENT IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS.
THE OBJECTIVE OF WAIVER OF INTEREST RATE ON PENDING LOANS HAS EXCEEDED RS 712 CRORE TO RS 825 CRORE. ABOUT 10 LAKH FARMERS HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE AGRICULTURE CREDIT. THE LOAN DISBURSEMENT HAS DOUBLED DURING 2005-06.
AN ADDITIONAL 34,000 HECTARE IRRIGATION CAPACITY HAS BEEN CREATED DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PM'S PACKAGE SO FAR. AS MANY AS 11 PROJECTS HAVE BEEN SANCTIONED AND RS 615 CRORE HAVE BEEN SPENT.
DURING THE RABI SEASON OF 2005-06, 1.25 LAKH QUINTAL SEEDS WERE DISTRIBUTED. DURING THE KHARIF SEASON OF 2007, ADDITIONAL FOUR LAKH SEEDS HAVE BEEN KEPT READY, THE RELEASE ADDED.
--------------
UNQUOTE :
MAHARASHTRA GOVT. CLARIFICATION IS MISLEADING AS RS.1526 CRORE OF PRIME MINISTER PACKAGE RS.712 CRORE WENT TO THE BANK AND REMAINING AMOUNT RS.800 CRORE WERE GIVEN TO IRRIGATION CONTRACTOR AFTER TAKING 20 % COMMISSION FROM THEM,KISHOR TIWARI OF VJAS INFORMED.
MAHARASHTRA GOVT. CLAIM OF CREATING ADDITIONAL CAPACITY OF 34,000 HECTARE FOR IRRIGATION IS ONLY ON PAPER AND 1.25 LACS QUINTAL SEED DISTRIBUTED IN LAST RABI SEASON HAS NOT EVEN INCREASED 1.25 LAC QUINTAL OF ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION IN RABI SEASON DUE WRONG SELECTION OF SEED AND MASSIVE CORRUPTION IN DISTRIBUTION OF SEED AND SAME WILL HAPPEN TO FOUR LAC QUINTAL SEED BEING DISTRIBUTED IN THIS YEAR AS THESE SEED ARE GIVEN ON 50% SUBSIDY NOT FREE AND COST FIX BY THE GOVT. IS 100% LOADED THAN MARKET PRICE OF THE SAME SEED MORE OVER IT IS BEING GIVEN ONE POCKET PER FARMER WHICH HARDLY COVER LESS THAN ACRE OF SOWING HENCE IT IS ONLY PAPER CLAIM NOT RELIEF, KISHOR TIWARI ADDED.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
State Launches Review of PM Package
Maharshtra Chief Minister to review farmers' packages in Yavatmal :
From - [10 May, 2007 l 0421 hrs ISTl Ramu Bhagwat lTIMES NEWS NETWORK]
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Nagpur/CM_to_review_farmers_packages_in_Yavatmal/articleshow/2024327.cms
NAGPUR : During his day-long Vidarbha visit on Saturday next, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is scheduled to review implementation of the special relief packages for farmers in Yavatmal district, considered to be ground zero of the region's suicide belt.
In the last six years, over 800 farmers have ended their lives in the district.
Once the prime cotton growing district, with the largest area under its cultivation, now largest number of suicides are reported from there among the six cotton growing districts of the region.
Through the special package announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 1 last, and the CM's package unveiled months before that, over 12 lakh farmers in the six distressed districts were promised a relief of over Rs 5000 crore.
Even as a controversy is raging after joint secretary (relief and rehabilitation) Praveen Shrivastav's filing of an affidavit claiming poor funds flow, the official website of the relief mission (Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swawalamban Mission) indicates that only about Rs 38 crore of the promised funds for loan waiver to farmers has been released by the Centre.
The chart in the website claims it is updated up to April 30. However, VNSS director general and Amravati divisional commissioner Sudhir Goel told ToI that the balance amount of around Rs 350 crore was credited by March 31, and he was informed about it during meeting on Tuesday in New Delhi, with the PMO officials.
While Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti convener Kishor Tiwari alleged that funds flow continued to be very poor on irrigation projects as well as quality seeds distribution programme under the package, Goel said the state had spent the targeted amount and was to reimbursed by the Centre. He denied that package implementation was suffering for want of funds.
From - [10 May, 2007 l 0421 hrs ISTl Ramu Bhagwat lTIMES NEWS NETWORK]
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Nagpur/CM_to_review_farmers_packages_in_Yavatmal/articleshow/2024327.cms
NAGPUR : During his day-long Vidarbha visit on Saturday next, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is scheduled to review implementation of the special relief packages for farmers in Yavatmal district, considered to be ground zero of the region's suicide belt.
In the last six years, over 800 farmers have ended their lives in the district.
Once the prime cotton growing district, with the largest area under its cultivation, now largest number of suicides are reported from there among the six cotton growing districts of the region.
Through the special package announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 1 last, and the CM's package unveiled months before that, over 12 lakh farmers in the six distressed districts were promised a relief of over Rs 5000 crore.
Even as a controversy is raging after joint secretary (relief and rehabilitation) Praveen Shrivastav's filing of an affidavit claiming poor funds flow, the official website of the relief mission (Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swawalamban Mission) indicates that only about Rs 38 crore of the promised funds for loan waiver to farmers has been released by the Centre.
The chart in the website claims it is updated up to April 30. However, VNSS director general and Amravati divisional commissioner Sudhir Goel told ToI that the balance amount of around Rs 350 crore was credited by March 31, and he was informed about it during meeting on Tuesday in New Delhi, with the PMO officials.
While Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti convener Kishor Tiwari alleged that funds flow continued to be very poor on irrigation projects as well as quality seeds distribution programme under the package, Goel said the state had spent the targeted amount and was to reimbursed by the Centre. He denied that package implementation was suffering for want of funds.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
A sad story of Bureaucrats and Politicians
The anti PMO office affidavit filed by Maharshtra government is producing bureaucratic stresses and strains now, as per this Times of India report from Prafulla Marpakwar ITNN
Vidarbha Package is fast becoming an orphan that nobody wants to keep. It is becoming too hot for politicians and bureaucrats to handle and the blame game has started in earnest, while the Sensex Minister and Cricket Minister take a nap.
Quote -
Anti-PMO affidavit : Joint Secy goes on leave - by Prafulla Marpakwar I TNN
Please click on the following link to read the TOI news item :
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TkdUT0kvMjAwNy8wNS8wOCNBcjAwNDAw&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom
Email : prafulla .marpakwar@ timesgroup.com
Mumbai \ Nagpur : A day after Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh approved a proposal to conduct a departmental inquiry against Pravin Srivastava for filing an affidavit against the PMO, the Joint Secretary (Relief and Rehabilitation) has proceeded on long leave to participate in a 'vipasyana' camp.
Though Srivastava, an Indian Forest Service (IFS) official, was not available for comment, his office confirmed that he had proceeded on leave to participate in a meditation camp. Significantly, a section of Mantralaya officials expressed the view that Srivastava was being made a scapegoat.
Following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a New Delhi-based lawyer over the failure of more than half a dozen states, including Maharashtra, to tackle the agrarian crisis, the apex court had asked the state chief secretary to file a comprehensive affidavit on the steps taken by the state government, particularly to tackle the farmers' suicides in Vidarbha.
In its affidavit, besides submitting adequate information on the relief measures taken by the state, the government also blamed the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for delay in releasing the promised financial assistance. It also mentioned that since there was delay on the part of the PMO in providing the funds for PM's special package for Vidarbha, the state government had to make alternate arrangements for the purpose.
The PMO was so irked by the affidavit that it not only ordered a probe into it, but also asked sleuths from the Intelligence Bureau to obtain information from the relief and rehabilitation department regarding the financial assistance provided to farmers from the Vidarbha region, which the Prime Minister had personally visited.
Deshmukh and the then chief secretary D K Sankaran also took note of the anti-PMO affidavit. While they submitted a clarification to the PMO, an internal probe was also initiated to find out how such an affidavit had been filed, since it had the approval of relief and rehabilitation secretary B P Pandey and Sankaran. In fact, the anti-PMO affidavit proved costly for Sankaran, who could not get an extension after his retirement on April 30.
An internal probe revealed that the affidavit was drafted by Srivastava and later approved by Pandey and Sankaran. However, before filing the affidavit in the apex court, Srivastava had made drastic changes to it, but had not shown the same to Pandey and Sankaran. Apparently, when Pandey took Srivastava to task for exceeding his brief, Srivastava tendered an unconditional apology.
On the basis of Srivastava's apology, Pandey moved a proposal for his departmental probe, which was approved by the new chief secretary, Johny Joseph, and Deshmukh. Significantly, the proposal has been approved a day before PMO principal secretary T K K Nair has convened a special meeting to review the PM's package for Vidarbha.
-- Unquote
Vidarbha Package is fast becoming an orphan that nobody wants to keep. It is becoming too hot for politicians and bureaucrats to handle and the blame game has started in earnest, while the Sensex Minister and Cricket Minister take a nap.
Quote -
Anti-PMO affidavit : Joint Secy goes on leave - by Prafulla Marpakwar I TNN
Please click on the following link to read the TOI news item :
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TkdUT0kvMjAwNy8wNS8wOCNBcjAwNDAw&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom
Email : prafulla .marpakwar@ timesgroup.com
Mumbai \ Nagpur : A day after Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh approved a proposal to conduct a departmental inquiry against Pravin Srivastava for filing an affidavit against the PMO, the Joint Secretary (Relief and Rehabilitation) has proceeded on long leave to participate in a 'vipasyana' camp.
Though Srivastava, an Indian Forest Service (IFS) official, was not available for comment, his office confirmed that he had proceeded on leave to participate in a meditation camp. Significantly, a section of Mantralaya officials expressed the view that Srivastava was being made a scapegoat.
Following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a New Delhi-based lawyer over the failure of more than half a dozen states, including Maharashtra, to tackle the agrarian crisis, the apex court had asked the state chief secretary to file a comprehensive affidavit on the steps taken by the state government, particularly to tackle the farmers' suicides in Vidarbha.
In its affidavit, besides submitting adequate information on the relief measures taken by the state, the government also blamed the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for delay in releasing the promised financial assistance. It also mentioned that since there was delay on the part of the PMO in providing the funds for PM's special package for Vidarbha, the state government had to make alternate arrangements for the purpose.
The PMO was so irked by the affidavit that it not only ordered a probe into it, but also asked sleuths from the Intelligence Bureau to obtain information from the relief and rehabilitation department regarding the financial assistance provided to farmers from the Vidarbha region, which the Prime Minister had personally visited.
Deshmukh and the then chief secretary D K Sankaran also took note of the anti-PMO affidavit. While they submitted a clarification to the PMO, an internal probe was also initiated to find out how such an affidavit had been filed, since it had the approval of relief and rehabilitation secretary B P Pandey and Sankaran. In fact, the anti-PMO affidavit proved costly for Sankaran, who could not get an extension after his retirement on April 30.
An internal probe revealed that the affidavit was drafted by Srivastava and later approved by Pandey and Sankaran. However, before filing the affidavit in the apex court, Srivastava had made drastic changes to it, but had not shown the same to Pandey and Sankaran. Apparently, when Pandey took Srivastava to task for exceeding his brief, Srivastava tendered an unconditional apology.
On the basis of Srivastava's apology, Pandey moved a proposal for his departmental probe, which was approved by the new chief secretary, Johny Joseph, and Deshmukh. Significantly, the proposal has been approved a day before PMO principal secretary T K K Nair has convened a special meeting to review the PM's package for Vidarbha.
-- Unquote
Friday, May 4, 2007
PM Vidarbha Package - Waiting for Godot
No succour for distressed farmers from PM Vidarbha Cotton Farmer package :
Rajeev Deshpande - [4 May, 2007 l 0258 hrs IST lTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
From - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1999861,prtpage-1.cms
NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's special package for 31 distressed rural districts, including six in Maharashtra's suicide-prone cotton bowl of Vidarbha, has not just failed, it seems to have boomeranged.
Ill-conceived cash doles, stalled irrigation projects and misdirected credit have left farmers in dire straits. Nearly 10 months after the package was announced by PM Manmohan Singh, it is now being recognised that the relief effort was a deeply flawed knee-jerk response to an agricultural crisis which needed a more in-depth approach. The package is floundering and suicides by Vidarbha farmers continue even as the mainstay of the relief measures, 540 irrigation projects including 40-odd major works that envisage dams for storing water in the dry region with rain-dependent farming, have simply not got off the block.
Official sources closely monitoring the relief package, said that the schemes remain caught up in the process of receiving technical, engineering and environmental clearances. The rollout period for the irrigation works, the critical Rs 2,177 crore element in the Rs 3,750 crore package, was to be three years. But, now, completion in even six years sounds optimistic.
Increased credit to farmers has paradoxically heightened debt burdens even as crops are at the mercy of rains and low cotton market support prices.
The plea for increasing MSP is also being seen as counter-productive ― it may lead to farmers investing more heavily in cotton, when the effort, officials feel, should be to help diversify crops.
The Rs 50 lakh given to district collectors has proved to be easy money that vanished swiftly and has left Maharashtra asking for more.
The money was meant for distressed families, and at an average of Rs 10,000 per household, it has been distributed among 500 beneficiaries in every affected district.
Besides being just a drop in an ocean of impoverishment, it has been difficult to even check if the money was claimed by genuine beneficiaries.
Given the size of the handout, an average of Rs 10,000, the assistance did not really change fortunes, of those affected, by the double whammy of poor crops and debt.
Officials had opposed dole, but the PM is understood to have been greatly moved by scenes of rural despair and urged that the amount be made available for instant relief. But the scheme's benefits have been largely unverifiable.
It is felt that a better approach to the debt problem could have been restructuring of credits, loans and repayments through cooperative banks on a partnership with states even as long-term efforts to improve irrigation were initiated.
Courtesy : rajeev.deshpande@timesgroup.com
Rajeev Deshpande - [4 May, 2007 l 0258 hrs IST lTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
From - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1999861,prtpage-1.cms
NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's special package for 31 distressed rural districts, including six in Maharashtra's suicide-prone cotton bowl of Vidarbha, has not just failed, it seems to have boomeranged.
Ill-conceived cash doles, stalled irrigation projects and misdirected credit have left farmers in dire straits. Nearly 10 months after the package was announced by PM Manmohan Singh, it is now being recognised that the relief effort was a deeply flawed knee-jerk response to an agricultural crisis which needed a more in-depth approach. The package is floundering and suicides by Vidarbha farmers continue even as the mainstay of the relief measures, 540 irrigation projects including 40-odd major works that envisage dams for storing water in the dry region with rain-dependent farming, have simply not got off the block.
Official sources closely monitoring the relief package, said that the schemes remain caught up in the process of receiving technical, engineering and environmental clearances. The rollout period for the irrigation works, the critical Rs 2,177 crore element in the Rs 3,750 crore package, was to be three years. But, now, completion in even six years sounds optimistic.
Increased credit to farmers has paradoxically heightened debt burdens even as crops are at the mercy of rains and low cotton market support prices.
The plea for increasing MSP is also being seen as counter-productive ― it may lead to farmers investing more heavily in cotton, when the effort, officials feel, should be to help diversify crops.
The Rs 50 lakh given to district collectors has proved to be easy money that vanished swiftly and has left Maharashtra asking for more.
The money was meant for distressed families, and at an average of Rs 10,000 per household, it has been distributed among 500 beneficiaries in every affected district.
Besides being just a drop in an ocean of impoverishment, it has been difficult to even check if the money was claimed by genuine beneficiaries.
Given the size of the handout, an average of Rs 10,000, the assistance did not really change fortunes, of those affected, by the double whammy of poor crops and debt.
Officials had opposed dole, but the PM is understood to have been greatly moved by scenes of rural despair and urged that the amount be made available for instant relief. But the scheme's benefits have been largely unverifiable.
It is felt that a better approach to the debt problem could have been restructuring of credits, loans and repayments through cooperative banks on a partnership with states even as long-term efforts to improve irrigation were initiated.
Courtesy : rajeev.deshpande@timesgroup.com
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