People's Democracy

Left Front Govt Launches Crop Insurance

IN sharp contrast to the centre’s growing disinvestment drive in the nation’s development, the Left Front government of Tripura has taken a bold step towards attaining self-sufficiency in food production in the state. As a part of this scheme, the state government is going to start a Crop Insurance Scheme and set up a biotechnology directorate shortly. Tripura information minister Jitendra Chowdhury announced this vital cabinet decision to newsmen at the Civil Secretariat on September 29.

Elaborating on the insurance scheme, Chowdhury said an insurance scheme was indeed in force earlier, under which the responsibility of compensating for any crop damage was shouldered by the centre and the state in the ratio of 75 and 25 per cent respectively. But the centre subsequently withdrew from the scheme and never paid heed to the state government’s request for its revival. As a result, there was for some time an absence of any sort of crop insurance scheme in Tripura.

It was in these circumstances that the Left Front cabinet decided to bring the entire peasantry in the state under the government Crop Insurance Scheme in a new format. This format commits the centre and the state to undertake equal responsibility for the compensation for crop damage through wildfire, lightning, storm, cyclone, typhoon, flood, draught, pest or crop diseases. The scheme is going to be introduced from the ensuing rabi season and will be compulsory for agricultural loanees and voluntary for other peasants. In the first phase, paddy and potato crops will be brought under its purview. There is in the scheme a provision of 2.5 per cent government subsidy on the premium in respect of kharif crops and 2 per cent on rabi crops. Small and marginal farmers will, however, get 50 per cent subsidy on premium.

As part of the Left Front government’s comprehensive plan towards attaining self-sufficiency in food production in Tripura, the cabinet also decided to open a biotechnology directorate to facilitate the provision of maximum technological support to the state’s agricultural, forest and animal resource development. The cabinet meeting also approved the state’s forest policy that is aimed at protection of forest resources for the state’s economic development. Chowdhury informed the press that an all-out awareness campaign will be run to this end, involving in it the people alongwith the three-tier panchayat bodies, educational institutions and other semi-government and non-government organisations. (INN)