The State government will release the first instalment of compensation money to 30 lakh farmers in the next one week, Revenue Minister Krishna Byregowda said here on Friday.

The minister told reporters on Friday that though the State government has announced 223 taluks as drought-hit and crop loss on 48.19 lakh hectares, and appealed to the Union government for compensation in September 2023, even today, compensation funds have not been received.

Byregowda, in a video conference with DCs, told them to ensure the compensation money is released to farmers on time. He said that under the Farmer Registration and Unified Beneficiary Information System (FRUITS), land details of 75 per cent of farmers are uploaded. In the next one week, the first instalment of compensation money will be released to bank accounts of farmers.

He said there have been cases of compensation being misused earlier, which will now be prevented as money will be released based on FRUITS data. Lakhs of farmers’ data was not uploaded and officials had been working on it for the past 15 days. Expressing displeasure over the Union government, Byregowda said that in spite of meeting Central government authorities, money was not released. “But farmers are in distress, so we are releasing the first instalment of Rs 2,000 to farmers from our treasury,” he added.

Speaking on Assistant Commissioner courts, the minister said close to 60,000 cases were pending before these courts which were more than five years old. Of these, 33,000 cases were sorted out in the past three months. There were 2,215 cases in Tahsildar courts earlier, which are now reduced to 170.

Source - https://www.newindianexpress.com