Modi sarkar 2.0: Bonanza for farmers in first Cabinet meeting

New Delhi: In the first Cabinet meeting, the government on Friday decided to extend PM-Kisan scheme to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country costing Rs 87,000 crore a year and also announced over Rs 10,000 crore pension scheme for 5 crore farmers, thereby fulfilling the poll promise.

Announcing the two key decisions, new agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Modi 2.0 government has announced landmark decisions for the farming community.

Meanwhile, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the first session of the Lok Sabha will be held from June 17 to July 26, with the regular budget to be presented on July 5.

The new Cabinet of the Narendra Modi government on Friday held its first meeting in which decisions were taken with regard to the welfare of farmers, small traders and children of defence and security personnel.

Terming the decisions to be “landmark”, Union inf-ormation and broadcasting minister Prakash Jav-adekar said: “In less than 24 hours after taking oath, the government has started functioning and taking important decisions. It has started implementing promises made in the BJP’s manifesto.”

During the meeting chaired by Mr Modi, the very first decision was with regard to enhancing the rates of scholarship in the ‘Prime Minister’s Sch-olarship Scheme’ under the National Defence Fund and extend the facility to the children of state police personnel also.

In another important decision, the Cabinet appr-oved the extension of the Prime Minister Kisan

Yojana to all farmers. Announcing the decision, Union minister of agriculture and farmer welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said nearly 14.5 crore farmers are expected to benefit from the scheme.

Besides, the Cabinet approved a new Central Sector Scheme, the Prad-han Mantri Kisan Pension Yojana, which will provide income support to small and marginal landholder farmer families with cultivable land holdings of up to 2 hectares, across the country, by way of Rs 6,000 per year. The ongoing scheme aims to cover around 12.5 crore small and marginal farmer families. This is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme for small and marginal farmers in which the Central government and farmers have to contribute on the basis of 50:50.

Mr Javadekar said the “path-breaking” scheme would provide a pension cover to a large section of farmers in which the Centre would spend Rs 10,774.5 crore for a period of three years. He added that the Cabinet has also cleared a special scheme for Control of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis, common amongst livestock.

The Cabinet cleared pension scheme for traders in which three crore retail traders and shopkeepers are expected to benefit.

With regard to scholarships for the wards of defence and security personnel, the Cabinet  appr-oved an increase in the rates of scholarship from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 per month for boys and from Rs 2,250 to Rs 3,000 per month for girls.