K'taka Agriculture Dept seeks Rs 400 cr budgetary allocation

Bangalore, Mar 6 (UNI) The Karnataka Agriculture department has sought Rs 400 crore budgetary allocation in 2007-08 to implement various schemes and projects, Agriculture Minister Bandeppa Kashempur informed today.

Speaking to newspersons here, he said budget allocation for the department last year was Rs 185 crore and over 80 per cent of the money was utilised. The JD(S)-BJP coalition Government had announced its new Agriculture policy, intended to boost the sector, he added.

The Minister said the department had sought Rs 120 crore for extending the area under drip irrigation, setting up fodder banks and warehouses at rural places. The State was expected to receive Rs 360 crore from the Centre for watershed programmes, including digging up percolation tanks at taluks. The department had distributed Rs 60 crore worth seeds at 75 per cent subsidy for both khariff and rabi crops. The special package grants for the six districts with most farmer suicide incidences, announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the lines of the Vidharbha package, was likely to be received from next year, he added.

UNI