Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Cabinet approved Wednesday the proposal to implement ‘Samruddhi Krushak Yojana’, under which farmers who have registered to sell paddy through the existing government mechanism will be paid Rs 3,100 per quintal, including the input assistance of Rs 800 per quintal and the prevailing minimum support price (MSP), Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja said. The Cabinet approved the paddy procurement policy for the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2024-25, which commenced October 18 and will conclude September 30, 2025.
The state government has set a target to procure 80 lakh metric tonne of paddy during the season, officials said, noting that in terms of rice, this would be around 54 lakh metric tonne.
The Cabinet also approved the Air Connectivity Policy under which substantial financial incentives would be offered to airlines to encourage them to launch new domestic and international flights from different airports in the state, officials said.
Besides the Biju Patnaik International Airport here and Veer Surendra Sai Airport in Jharsuguda, the state has smaller airports in Jeypore, Rourkela and Utkela. Under the new policy, the government would provide viability gap funding to airlines for starting new services from these airports, they said.
It would provide Rs 5 lakh per round trip for domestic routes and Rs 10 lakh for international routes, with a potential increase for routes exceeding 750 km, an official statement said. This support would mitigate financial risk and make new routes more attractive, the statement added.
The Cabinet also approved minor amendments in the guidelines for Subhadra Yojana that included delinking its database from the Aadhaar, officials said.
Ahuja said that over 1 crore people have registered so far and more than 60 lakh applications have been approved. About 2.70 lakh applications have been rejected as they were found ineligible during scrutiny, he said.
PNN & Agencies
