The State Government is primarily responsible for providing necessary relief measures in the wake of natural calamities. For undertaking relief measures, funds are available with the State Government in the form of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). Additional financial assistance, over and above SDRF, is considered from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for natural calamities of severe nature and is approved on the basis of Memorandum received from the State Government, in accordance with established procedures. 

The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare is concerned with providing relief under NDRF to farmers who have lost their crops due to drought, hailstorm, pest attack and cold wave/frost. An amount of Rs.22972.30 crore has been approved from NDRF during 2015-16 to 2017-18 to the States affected by the above said calamities.

The Government of India has evolved several schemes/programmes to address the need for drought mitigation and other requirements of the farmers under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), besides implementation of  Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana  (PMFBY)  and  National  Agriculture  Market Scheme (e-NAM), etc. for protecting farmers’ interests. The States have been given flexibility under RKVY to plan region specific interventions for the farmers.

The agriculture is a state subject. The State Governments are responsible for disbursement of funds to the affected farmers.  All individual beneficiary-oriented assistance is mandatorily/necessarily disbursed through the bank account of the beneficiary.  In order to improve the disbursement and transparency in providing relief to the beneficiaries under various items, the State Government has to prepare a consolidated list of individual beneficiaries in whose bank account funds have been transferred.  The list so prepared should be displayed on their website as well as the State/District and block/taluk levels for the purpose of verification and social audit.

This Information was given by the Minister of State for Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

*****

APS/RCS