Bhubaneswar, Feb 12: : Officials have been directed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to ensure that input subsidy provided by the State government reaches sharecroppers.
The directive was issued by Patnaik during a discussion with Board of Revenue member Ashok Tripathy here on Thursday.
Earlier this year, acknowledging the fact that sharecroppers are being deprived of the benefits, the State government had stated that it will enact a new law for their benefit. “Though it is their right, sharecroppers are not getting any benefits. Only land owners are getting the Agriculture Input subsidy.
Therefore, this year, we will bring a law which will benefit sharecroppers,” Revenue minister Bijayshree Routray had said.
According to sources, the Centre has already formed a committee led by former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices to allocate more benefits to sharecroppers.
In December last year, the State government had announced that it would provide additional input subsidy worth Rs 100 crore to sharecroppers as part of drought assistance, apart from Rs 113 crore input subsidy already provided to them.
