Bengaluru: The state government is contemplating various methods to provide drought relief to lakhs of farmers in 139 drought-hit taluks across the state, according to Minister for Revenue Kagodu Thimmappa.
Minister Kagodu Thimmappa said that deputy commissioners had been directed to prepare and submit the reports by this month-end on the number of farmers who had borrowed loans from cooperative banks. One of the options is said to waive the crop loans taken from cooperative banks. The Cabinet meeting would take a decision on either crop loans waived off or re-scheduled of repayment of such loans by the farmers.
The minister said that 29 more taluks had been identified as drought-hit, and with this, the number of taluks that have been facing drought had increased to 139. The estimated loss of crops had been put at Rs. 16,000 crore.
He said that as per the norms of the National Disaster Response Fund, the state government had submitted a memorandum seeking Rs. 4,500 crore as compensation from the Centre. “The Central teams were assessing crop loss in the districts,” he said.
He said the state government had released Rs 300 crore to the respective Deputy Commissioners to mitigate drinking water crisis in villages.
