By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, DEC 24, 2024: UNION Minister of Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Rural Development, Shivraj Singh Chouhan participated in the event of Kisan Samman Diwas and Farmers and Rural Development Beneficiaries Conference organized at Council of Agricultural Research - Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra on the occasion of National Farmers Day 2024 yesterday. In his address, Chouhan said that under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin Plus (+), 13 lakh 29 thousand 678 houses have been approved for Maharashtra under the financial year 2024-25. Its survey work has been completed and is now under its final list, these additional houses will be allotted in Maharashtra. His government is working with the commitment that no person should be deprived of a pucca house. In Maharashtra, a target has been set to build a total of 19 lakh 66 thousand 767 houses in the financial year 2024-25. The total estimated expenditure for this will be Rs 29501 crore. It is hoped that the newly formed state government will be able to achieve these targets within the stipulated time. Chouhan said that Maharashtra has become the first state in the country which has been given the target of constructing the maximum number of houses.

Addressing the gathering the Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the government is making all-out efforts to provide the benefits of this scheme to those people who have not got the opportunity to join the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana or whose name is not in the survey list. He said that earlier people who had two wheelers and telephones were deprived of this scheme but now under the Awas Plus (+) scheme, all such people will get the benefit of a house. According to the new survey, now people in the monthly income group of 15 thousand and those who are having more than 5 acres of un-irrigated land will also be able to get the benefit of this scheme.

He said that his government is very sensitive towards women empowerment. A target has been set to make 3 crore Lakhpati Didi across the country. So far, 1.15 crore sisters have been made Lakhpati Didi because women's self-help groups play a major role in India's economy.

Talking about the development of the agriculture sector, Chouhan said that during the UPA government, the budget provision for agriculture was only Rs 23 thousand crores, whereas during the tenure of the Modi government, it has been increased to Rs 1 lakh 27 thousand crores. Apart from this, the government has provided a subsidy of Rs 1 lakh 94 thousand crores under a total of 45 programs.

He has urged that we will have to gradually move towards natural farming while maintaining the production quantity under the Natural Agriculture Mission. Everyone will benefit from this in the offing. The government has so far spent Rs 1166 lakh crore for various ongoing schemes under the National Food Security Program. The government is making continuous efforts to double the income of farmers of the country. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dedicated 109 varieties of new seeds of 65 crops to the nation. This will be an important part of natural farming. He said that this earth is not made only for humans; it is made for all living creatures like insects and moths. Calling to stop the indiscriminate use of pesticides, Chouhan said that it is the need of the hour that we have to move towards natural farming and we have to take this forward with full potentials. This will add value to our production. The government is continuously working to increase the storage capacity of farmers.

The Agriculture Minister said that we should develop such technology which can irrigate more with less water. Stressing on reducing the cost of production to boost the agriculture sector, Chouhan said that last year his government had provided 1.94 metric tonnes of subsidy to farmers.

The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare organized Kisan Samman Diwas and Farmers and Rural Development Beneficiaries Conference at ICAR-ATARI, Pune today on the occasion of National Farmers Day 2024. Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, several ministers of Maharashtra Government and senior officials of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare attended the program.