HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Aug 25: Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said that the state government would extend support to set up 50 rice mills with 200 MT milling capacity in the state. He emphasised that the scheme will be promoted in convergence with CMSGUY and Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) with subsidies ranging from 10 lakh to 40 lakh depending on the capacity of the mill.
The chief minister announced this while
chairing a meeting held with the officials of agriculture department and chief minister’s Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana (CMSGUY) at Janata Bhawan and discussed several key initiatives aimed at supporting the needs of farmers at the grass root level.
During the meeting, CM Sarma also reviewed the measures proposed by the agriculture department for setting up rice mills, providing combine harvesters and mini trucks to farmer producer companies (FPCs), which are groups of small and marginal farmers during the meeting. He stressed to scale up support to farmers and build an ecosystem that facilitates enhanced paddy procurement and promotes export of farm products.
He also gave several directions to make the proposed initiatives more useful and affordable to farmers.
“The state government would also sponsor setting up 1,000 mini rice mills under AIF. For such mills subsidy upto 1.17 lakh per mill will be provided. On the other hand, as proposed by the agriculture department, combine harvesters will be provided to FPCs for which subsidy up to 90% will be given,” CM Sarma said.
The chief minister also asked the department to carry out the scheme for providing Mini Trucks to FPCs to use the same for agricultural purposes with subsidy to the tune of 30% or Rs 1.5 lakh whichever is less.
Agriculture minister Atul Bora, Finance minister Ajanta Neog, additional chief secretary FCS&CS BR Samal, additional chief secretary Agriculture Dr Asish Kumar Bhutani, principal secretary to CM Samir Kumar Sinha, CEO CMSGUY Padmapani Bora and other officials were present in the meeting.
Earlier, the chief minister also held a meeting with officials of the Finance Department for identification of projects under NIDA (NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance), RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) and RIAS (Rural Infrastructure Assistance to State Governments).
Projects such as 2,000 nos of Anganwadi Centres, Old Age Home at Boko, Tourism Project at Jongalbolohu Garh, Stadium at Chandrapur, etc., were discussed to take up under NIDA during the meeting. CM Sarma also asked the officials to expedite release of funds under RIDF and identify income generating and livelihood projects for taking up under RIAS.






