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Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said a number of steps were taken during the lockdown period to help farmers and fishery owners among others as she announced the third tranche of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package.
She said during the lockdown period the minimum support price (MSP) purchases of amount more than Rs 74,300 crore were made as part of additional steps for agriculture during the period.
Funds transfer worth Rs 18,700 crore has been done under PM KISAN and PM Fasal Bima Yojana claims worth Rs 6,400 crore released in the past two months, she said.
A new scheme has been launched for interest subvention at the rate of 2% per annum to dairy cooperatives for 2020-21 aimed at unlocking Rs 5,000 crore additional liquidity, benefitting two crore farmers, she said.
To help the fisheries sector, operations of marine capture fisheries and aquaculture has been relaxed to cover inland fisheries.
She said that agriculture and allied activities will be the focus of the third tranche of the economic package to combat the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
“I will announce 11 measures and eight of them relate to strengthening infrastructure, strengthening capacity, building better logistics…. The rest three of the 11 will pertain to governance and administrative reforms, ”she said in her third press briefing in as many days.
Sitharaman has been announcing the details of the Rs 20 lakh crore package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, vowing to make the country ‘atmanirbhar’ or self-reliant.
Sitharaman will be holding daily press conferences till Sunday.
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