Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday said her government would upgrade 12,500 acre of barren land into cultivable farm land with adequate water facilities while announcing several schemes for ushering in a second green revolution in the state. "With food production to be affected owing to the reducing cultivable land, my government this year will upgrade 12,500 acres of barren land and to set up proper water facilities a subsidy of Rs.4,000/acre will be given," she told the assembly.
According to her, the farm inputs will also be provided at subsidised rates and a sum of Rs 7.20 crore will be given for this purpose. In order to use the available water in an efficient manner, Jayalalithaa said the state would procure and rent out rain guns and mobile sprinklers to farmers. The project involves an outlay of Rs 57 crore, she said.
In order to make Tamil Nadu self-sufficient in food grain production, three kinds of fast track plans will be drawn and a plan allocation of Rs 114.20 crore has been allocated for this purpose, she added. According to her, a scheme worth Rs 275 crore will be implemented through sugar mills to boost sugarcane production in 50,000 acres while adding the setting up of special purpose vehicle to provide raw materials to the farmers.
In order to mechanise the farm operations as farm labourers are migrating, Jayalalithaa said the government would provide farm equipment at subsidised rates at an outlay of
04:46 AM, May 07, 2013
New Delhi: A war of words broke out between the Congress and the opposition over the National Food Security Bill that the government tried its best to debate in the Lok Sabha and get passed on Monday. The opposition continued to disrupt the house over the coal blocks allocation issue as Food Minister KV Thomas moved the bill, saying it was a key UPA legislation that would give the right...
04:05 AM, May 07, 2013
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said the country would meet the target of producing 254.23 million tonne foodgrain in 2012-13 despite drought in some parts of the country. India could not achieve the food production target in 2009-10 due to severe drought in many states. However, it had met the target since 2010-11. "Despite drought in some parts of the country in 2012-13, foodgrain production is on course to...
03:47 AM, Apr 24, 2013
Punjab has yet again reaped a bumper crop, but the big question is where will it be stored? Starting April 1, 150 lakh tonnes of wheat are set to arrive in Punjab's procurement centres, but only 60 lakh tonnes can be stored safely. ...
06:22 AM, Mar 29, 2013
Three persons, including a police inspector and a head constable, have been arrested after a High Court directive in connection with the murder of a Congress worker in police firing in 2012, police said. Ambika Prasad Dube was killed allegedly in a police firing at Jhipani Dhana village following a dispute in June 2012. ...
12:50 AM, Mar 25, 2013
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday hoped the landmark Food Security Bill, to ensure the right to highly subsidised foodgrains to poor, would be passed in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament. ...
04:42 PM, Mar 23, 2013
Lashing out at the central government for stopping allocation of additional foodgrain in backward areas and some targeted groups at cheap rates in the coming fiscal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her government would continue the schemes from its own resources. ...
04:06 AM, Mar 21, 2013
UPA II's most ambitious bill, the Food Bill, is a step closer to becoming law. The Cabinet is meeting amidst strong hopes that it will clear the Food Bill for passing in Parliament. The Congress believes the Food Bill, which was first tabled in 2011 will be a game changer. ...
07:31 AM, Mar 18, 2013
India will do everything it can to push record volumes of wheat onto the global market to cut massive stocks, a senior farm ministry official said on Wednesday, in a move that could hit shipments of other grains using rail and congested ports. The world's No 2 wheat producer is expecting another bumper harvest to start rolling in within weeks but lacks the warehouses needed to weatherproof a grain mountain...
11:53 PM, Mar 06, 2013
Despite government's promises to build more godowns for food grain storage, India has no space to store at least one-third of the 900 lakh metric tonnes of rice and wheat that is expected to be ready by June, 2013. Stark images from 2012 highlighted the acute lack of storage space for food grain procured for the central pool. ...
11:06 AM, Mar 05, 2013
Government has revised the Food bill and now proposes to give legal right to over 5 kg of foodgrains at Rs 1-3 per kg per month to about 70 per cent of the population as suggested by the Parliamentary panel, Food Minister KV Thomas said on Tuesday. A revised bill has been sent to the Law Ministry for vetting, after which it will be moved to the Cabinet, he said....
09:38 PM, Feb 19, 2013
India needs a 200 billion rupee top-up for its proposed food security bill, aimed at ensuring subsidised grain for the poor, Food Minister KV Thomas said on Thursday, even as the government is seeking deep spending cuts. ...
12:59 AM, Feb 15, 2013
Over the years, India has seen a criminal waste of food grains, but now the Karnataka food department is trying to ensure that doesn't happen any more. They now have a monitoring system in place. ...
10:16 AM, Jan 29, 2013
The driver of a firm associated with liquor baron late Ponty Chadha on Monday escaped with an amount to the tune of Rs 10 lakh from Gurdaspur district, police said. On the complaint of Jaspreet Singh Seth, Vice President of 'AB food grains', associated with Chadha, a case was registered against Amritsar resident Rajesh Kumar for escaping with the amount, SHO Sri Hargobindpur Gurbhinder Singh said. ...
10:12 PM, Dec 31, 2012
Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the Congress-led government in Kerala tries hard to bring down skyrocketing prices of rice, Left parties have decided to take on the government over the issue. Rice is considered the staple food in the southern state but in the last four years, prices of the grain have more than doubled -- from Rs 19.70 to Rs 48 per kg. Prices of common rice varieties have gone up...
04:59 PM, Dec 18, 2012
Paliganj: A bank with a difference provides grain on loan to poor Dalit women in Paliganj in Bihar. It saves them from the clutches of upper caste moneylenders. If a loan is required, the bank simply lends grain to the women. This unique idea has brought about a revolution among the Dalit population in rural Bihar. The women, mostly hailing from extremely poor families, were neck deep in the debt...
10:16 AM, Nov 30, 2012
Lucknow: Warning the Uttar Pradesh government of another food grains scam, the BSP on Thursday claimed massive irregularities have come to light in wheat purchases in five districts of the state. "There is every possibility of another food grains scam like the one in 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 worth Rs 50,000 crores which is being investigated by the CBI with reports of the wheat purchased till June 30, 2012 in Gorakhpur,...
04:58 PM, Aug 30, 2012
New Delhi: A criminal wastage of food grain that could feed millions of starving people has being reported in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Rice worth Rs 250 crore was left to rot out in the open for over 2 years in Maharastra's Gadchriroli district. The Congress-led state government has blamed Union Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar for the wastage, saying it is the job of his ministry to store...
06:38 AM, Aug 13, 2012
Vadodara: Over 3,000 quintals of wheat worth over Rs 3.5 crore was damaged due to rains over the last two days as local officials had failed to make proper storage arrangements, BJP MP Balkrishna Shukla said on Sunday. "Food Corporation of India and Central Warehousing Corporation had kept 3,000 quintals of wheat in the open at the premises of FCI and CWC and Vadodara railway station. It was damaged due...
10:14 PM, Aug 12, 2012
Cuttack: Absolute, ravaging hunger has driven slum dwellers in Odisha to dig up wasted food grain by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and eat it for their survival. The 1,206 bags of PDS rice belonging to the FCI were supposed to feed empty stomachs. Instead, they lay rotting in Cuttack's railway goods shed for the last nine months, stuck in a red-tape tussle between the railways and the FCI...
06:28 AM, Aug 12, 2012
