ITANAGAR, June 9 - Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has welcomed the decisions taken in the first Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, for the welfare of farmers and traders.
In a statement, Khandu hailed the �philanthropic decisions� of the Union Cabinet which will greatly benefit the hard-working farmers and industrious traders of the country.
The Union Cabinet has approved of covering 14.5 crore farmers across the country under the PM-KISAN scheme wherein farmers, irrespective of their land holdings, will get Rs 6,000 in their bank accounts. The Union Cabinet also approved of a proposal to spend Rs 10,774.5 crore over a period of three years to provide pension cover to crores of farmers.
Khandu also hailed the Modi Cabinet�s approval of an ambitious scheme with a total outlay of Rs 13,343 crore to fully control foot and mouth disease (FMD) and Brucellosis diseases afflicting livestock in the next five years. �This scheme will greatly help the farmers of my State who are predominantly engaged in livestock rearing and had been struggling to eradicate the FMD,� the Chief Minister said. He also thanked the Prime Minister for subsiding the previous ratio of Centre-State funding pattern of 60:40 with the Centre bearing the entire cost under the new decision.
The livestock scheme envisages vaccination coverage to 30 crore bovines (cows, bulls and buffaloes) and 20 crore sheep/goats and 10 million pigs. Khandu further lauded the Union Cabinet for enhancing the amount to be paid as part of the Prime Minister�s Scholarship Scheme under the National Defence Fund. The rates of scholarship have been increased 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.
The Modi Government which symbolises �Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas� is standing tall and living up to the people�s aspirations, Khandu said.
