Hoshiarpur, December 17

The subsidy of around Rs 2.36 cr has been paid for the agricultural machinery this year by the government to private farmers, cooperative societies, gram panchayats and the Farmers Produce Associations of the district, over various types of straw management farm machinery.

Giving information about this, Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Surinder Singh said a scheme is being run under which latest farming machines for disposal of straw are being provided to the farmers on subsidy. The private farmers of the district had applied under this scheme besides the farmer groups setting up custom hiring centers, cooperative societies, Gram Panchayats and Farmers Produce Associations. They procure the machines after getting the approval letter from the department.

These machines have been physically inspected at the block-level by the officials of the Agriculture Department. After the physical examination, the payments of subsidy to the eligible applicants, has been started and under the first phase, the subsidy of Rs. 14,7,55,700 for 151 machines of 151 private farmers of the district has been provided.

The subsidy of Rs 4,67,200 for 3 machines of Gram Panchayats, Rs 1,68,000 for one machine of Kisan Utpadak Sangathan and Rs 58,01,835 for 61 machines of 43 farmer groups has been successfully paid. — OC