The royalty scheme for owners of cultivable paddy land in the State has seen a tepid response with only a fraction of the owners submitting applications so far.
Earlier, the government had announced ₹2,000 per hectare every year as royalty under the Rice Development scheme. It has set aside ₹40 crore for the project and had started receiving applications from September 11.
As of Monday, the Agriculture Department received around 48,881 applications, far less than anticipated. Of these, 21,236 were received from Palakkad and another 12,049 from Alappuzha – the two major rice-producing districts of Kerala. The department was expecting more than two lakh applications from across the State.
No deadline
Officials with the Agriculture Department said that no deadline had been fixed for submitting the application and they hoped more people would apply to avail themselves of the benefit in the coming days.
“After the initial lukewarm response, the number of applications being submitted is picking up. As beneficiaries need to submit the application online, a large number of them have to go to Akshaya centres. With the COVID-19 spreading thick and fast, many of them are reluctant to go there. As there is no last date to file the application, they can do it at any time, “ said, Sapheena K.S. Deputy Director of Agriculture, Alappuzha.
However, the owners, especially smallholders seem to be less enthusiastic about the scheme. “When it comes to Kuttanad, the majority are small landowners. The royalty is ₹2,000 per hectare. Those who own small fields, for example, one acre, 50 cents or even less are not going to get much. The government should have announced an equal royalty to all irrespective of the area of land they possess,” said, Renil Kumar K.K., secretary, Vavakkad North padasekharam in Kuttanad.
Tax receipts
Mr. Kumar said that several paddy field owners in Kuttanad did not have tax receipts as the fields still remain under the ownership of landlords. Although current owners bought it from landlords several decades ago, titles were yet to be transferred. The applicants should provide tax receipt/possession certificate to get the royalty.
The royalty was announced as an encouragement to owners/ farmers to continue paddy cultivation. According to officials, owners of fields currently under cultivation are eligible for the royalty. Those cultivating pulses, vegetables, sesame and groundnuts in paddy fields as part of the crop cycle can also apply. Owners of fields that remain fallow can file the application after giving assurance that the cultivation will be revived either by them or through other farmers or agencies.
The applications for the royalty should be filed online on www.aims.kerala.gov.in.
