 bill no 139 of  2016 the payment of pension to farmers in drought affected areas bill, 2016 by shri shivaji adhalrao patil, mp a billto provide for payment of pension and certain other facilities to farmers in drought affected areasbe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—short title and commencementdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "drought affected area" means any district or part of a district which has been declared as drought affected area by the central government under section 3;5(b) "farmer" means a person who possesses agricultural land measuring not more than five acres in a drought affected area and has no income from any source other than agriculture; and(c) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act3 (1) the central government may, from time to time, declare any area as drought affected area either on its own or on the recommendation of the concerned state governmentdeclaration of drought affected area10(2) the central government may take into consideration such factors as it may deem fit before declaring an area as a drought affected area4 the central government shall—(a) provide pension to every farmer at the rate of five thousand rupees per month;15central government to provide pension and certain other facilities to farmers(b) provide free educational facilities including supply of books, uniform andwriting materials to the children of farmers;(c) make provision for life insurance cover free of cost to farmers; and(d) provide free healthcare facilities to farmers and their dependent family members20cessation of an area as drought affected area5 (1) if the central government is satisfied at any point of time that drought situation no longer exists in any district or in any part of a district declared as drought affected area under section 3, the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, specify the date from which such district or part of district shall cease to be a drought affected area25(2) all facilities other than monthly pension provided to farmers in a district or part of a district under section 4 shall continue for a period of one year from the date of notification of cessation of that district or part of that district as drought affected areapower to make rules6 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act30 35(2) every rule made under this act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days, which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement  of  objects  and  reasonsindia is predominantly an agricultural state sixty per cent of the population is directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural activities but our agriculture, even after sixty-nine years of independence, is fully dependent on monsoon whenever monsoon fails, agriculture sector is affected to a great extent moreover, due to urbanization and industrialization, agricultural land is shrinking most of times, a large number of districts in the country are affected by drought the farmers in the drought affected areas face a lot of problems in carrying on their livelihood they are compelled by extreme situations to commit suicide because they are not able to meet their daily needs and repay their loans to banks and moneylenderstherefore, it is proposed in the bill to provide certain measures for welfare of farmers living in drought affected areashence this billnew delhi;shivaji adhalrao patilapril  13, 2016 financial memorandumclause 4 of the bill provides for payment of pension and other certain facilities to farmers in drought affected areas by the central government the bill, therefore if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees five hundred crore will be involved as a recurring expenditure per annum from the consolidated fund of indiano non-recurring expenditure is likely to be involved memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 6 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative powers is of a normal character lok  sabha———— a billto provide for payment of pension and certain other facilities to farmers in drought affected areas————(shri shivaji adhalrao patil, mp)gmgipmrnd—315ls(s3)—06052016