56L farmers to lose diesel subsidy under Karnataka’s Raitha Shakti scheme?
About 56 lakh farmers are set to lose subsidies that they had availed last year under the Raitha Shakti scheme as the government is likely to put a pin on the scheme this fiscal.
Raitha Shakti was introduced by former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in 2022, under which farmers were eligible for diesel subsidy at Rs 250 per acre and up to a maximum of five acres. The government had introduced the scheme in order to encourage farm mechanisation and to reduce the burden of power bills on farmers.
Sources in the agriculture department said they were awaiting the finance department’s decision as they had no clarity on whether or not to continue the scheme. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s 2023-24 budget makes no mention of the scheme.
