The Hindu : Front Page : Panel to suggest package for two districts

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Thursday, Nov 09, 2006
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Panel to suggest package for two districts

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan will head a multi-disciplinary committee that will give suggestions for the rehabilitation package to be worked out for farmers of Allapuzha and Idukki districts reporting suicides.

Announcing this here at the Economic Editors' Conference, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the committee would recommend the package that should be worked out for the preservation and development of crops in the two districts. It would also suggest measures for the rejuvenation of plantation crops in a mission mode.

The panel would also suggest measures for the rejuvenation of coconut cultivation, constitution of a new fishing harbour and provision of institutional credit to farmers.

The committee would submit its report in six months.

The Centre has already given a Rs.765-crore rehabilitation package for three identified predominant suicide districts of Kerala. They are Kasaragod, Palakkad and Wayanad.

The package was announced in the wake of a spate of suicides by debt-ridden farmers who found it difficult to repay loans taken from banks because of various reasons. The maximum number of suicides was reported from Wayanad.

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