FARMERS TO GET PENSION

                FARMERS TO GET PENSION
The first batch of elderly farmers will get their first pension packets from the state government on the auspicious Malayalam New Year day that falls on August 17; kerala would thus become the first state in the country to launch a pension scheme for farmers.
The pension amount now is Rs 300 a month. Farmers above the age of 60, growing rice in fields extending from 10 cents (about 0.4 hectare to two hectares in area, earning at least 50 percent of their annual income from cultivation and getting no other welfare pension were eligible for the pension.
They would also get an assistance of Rs 25,000 each at the time of their daughters wedding. This assistance would be only for one daughter in each case. The minister said that nearly 10,000 elderly farmers would get the pension. In the next stage, farmers of other crops too would be included in the scheme and additional benefits such as scholarships for children too will be included. When the pensioner dies, half the pension amount would be sanctioned as family pension to the life partner.

                                                              Prof John Kurakar