Remove provision barring kin of ministers, MLAs from availing warehouse subsidy: Joshi to Raj govt

Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi on Saturday asked the state government to remove a provision that prohibits the family members of former and incumbent ministers, parliamentarians, MLAs, mayors, and Zila Parishad chairpersons from availing the benefit of 50 percent capital subsidy on setting up of warehouses.

CPI(M) MLA Balwan Poonia raised the matter in the Assembly during the Zero Hour and demanded that the state government amend its notification.

Poonia said that the families of ministers, parliamentarians, MLAs, mayors, and Zila Parishad chairpersons -- both former and sitting -- are not considered as farmer families in the notification.

After a discussion on the issue, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal informed the House that 50 percent capital subsidy is given to farmers for setting up warehouses while the rest get a subsidy of 25 percent.

The minister said the notification was issued on September 2 and that the definition of farmer given by the Government of India in the context of the PM-Kisan scheme was incorporated in it.

Dhariwal defended the state government's classification of farmer and non-farmer families and said that non-farmer families get a 25 percent subsidy.

Speaker Joshi intervened and said that the Government of India's definition of farmers was about the Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme and it should not be applied to this scheme because it was an entrepreneurial activity.

He asked the government to delete the condition from the notification to provide a 50 per cent capital subsidy to the family members of the people defined in the category.