Chandigarh May 15: Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal has welcomed the stimulus package of Rs 1.63 lakh crore announced by the Union Finance Minister, Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman today for the revival of agriculture and allied sectors saying that this special package will prove to be extremely beneficial to the farmers of Haryana.

In a statement issued here today, Mr Manohar Lal said this package will also help achieving the vision of strengthening the agriculture and allied sectors and doubling the income of farmers laid out in the State Budget for the year 2020-21 and help the government overcome the resource crunch of the last two months for various schemes for the welfare of farmers proposed in the State Budget.

He said that provision of Rs 20,000 crore under Pradhanmantri Matsya Sampda Yojana, an outlay of Rs 13,343 crore for National Animal Disease Control Programme and Rs 15,000 crore provision towards strengthening dairy infrastructure will go a long way in further enhancing the productivity of fisheries and milk in the State.

The Chief Minister who is also the Finance Minister said that during the Budget Speech delivered by him in the Vidhan Sabha Session earlier this year, he had announced a budget outlay of Rs 6481.48 crore alone for agriculture and farmers' welfare activities. He further said that the Government of India has given special emphasis on bringing institutional reforms in liberalization of agriculture sector wherein farmers will be encouraged to sell their produce through e-trade mechanism at the price of their choice.

He said that Haryana has already taken a lot of steps in this direction and 54 mandis have been linked to e-Nam portal. He said that apart from this, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Haryana is providing cattle treatment and breeding facilities to as many as 89.98 lakh cattle through 2883 veterinary institutions. As fisheries can play a vital role in doubling the income of farmers as envisaged by Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, the State Government has set a target to bring 55,000 acre under fisheries in the year 2020-21 and increase the fish production to 2.60 lakh metric tonnes, he added.

He said that steps announced by the Union Finance Minister today will give a major boost to the efforts made by the State Government and help in expeditiously achieving the targets envisaged for agriculture and allied sectors in the State Budget for this year.