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

Speaker C P Joshi on Saturday asked the Rajasthan 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 per cent capital subsidy on setting up of warehouses.

Jaipur: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 per cent 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 per cent capital subsidy is given to farmers for setting up warehouses while the rest get a subsidy of 25 per cent.

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 25 per cent subsidy.

Speaker Joshi intervened and said that the Government of India's definition of farmers was in relation to 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 50 per cent capital subsidy to the family members of the people defined in the category. PTI