 bill no 59 of 2011 the farmers (protection from natural calamities and other welfare measures)  bill, 2011 bydr mahendrasinh p chauhan, mpa billto provide for the protection of farmers affected by natural calamities and for other welfare measures and for matters connected therewithbe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-second year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called by farmers (protection from natural calamities and other welfare measures) act, 2011short title, extent and commencement5(2) it extends to the whole of india(3) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appointdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—10(a) "appropriate government" means in case of a state, the government of thatstate and in all other cases, the central government;(b) "farmers affected by natural calamity" means a farmer whose property, including livestock, crop, orchard, field, machine or tools, is lost, destroyed or damaged due to natural calamity;(c) "fund" means the farmers welfare fund established under section 5;5(d) "natural calamity" includes drought, flood, cyclone, hailstorm, cloud burst, tsunami, landslide or earthquake or such other conditions as may be notified by the appropriate government from time to time;(e) "old age farmer" means a farmer who has completed sixty years of age; (f) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; and (g) "scheme" means the farmers credit scheme formulated under section 8103 (1) notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, every farmer who has been affected by natural calamity, shall be paid adequate compensation by the appropriate government in such manner as may be prescribedevery farmer affected by natural calamities to be paid adequate compensation15(2) the amount of compensation payable to a farmer under clause (1), shall be such as may be specified by the central government from time to time, by notification in the official gazette(3) the appropriate government, while specifying the compensation under clause (2), shall take into account the actual loss suffered by a farmer due to the natural calamity20(4) every claimant, shall apply to an officer so nominated by the appropriate government for the purpose of payment of compensation, in the prescribed form, giving such information as may be prescribed:provided that nothing in this act shall prevent a gram panchayat from applying for compensation on behalf of all the affected farmers living within the jurisdiction of such gram panchayat25(5) every claim for compensation under this act shall be disposed of within a period of thirty days from the date of filing of the claim by the affected farmer or by the gram panchayat, as the case may befarmers welfare fund4 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, constitute a fund to be called as the farmers welfare fund30(2) the initial corpus of the fund shall be rupees five thousand crore of which rupees four thousand crore shall be provided by the central government, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, and rupees one thousand crore shall be provided by the state governments in such manner as may be prescribed35(3) the central government and the state governments shall contribute every year to the fund in such ratio as may be prescribed(4) there shall also be credited to the fund any grants or donation that may be made by any person or institution5 (1) the appropriate government shall take such measures as it may think necessary and expedient for the removal of indebtedness amongst farmers40(2) without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, the measures shall also include measures for giving remunerative prices to farmers for their produce and provision of a comprehensive crop insurance scheme for farmersappropriate government to take measures for the removal of indebtedness amongst farmers pension to old age farmers6 (1) the appropriate government shall pay not be less than rupees one thousand per month as pension to every old age farmer, in such manner as may be prescribed:45provided that the old age pension shall be payable to only those old age farmers whose income from all sources is not more than two thousand rupees per month(2) the appropriate government shall revise the rate of old age pension from time to time taking into account such criteria as it may consider necessaryfarmers credit scheme05 7 (1) the central government, in consultation with the state governments, formulate a scheme to be called the farmers credit scheme for providing loans to farmers through banks and financial institutions(2) the scheme shall provide for:—(i) terms and conditions governing the flow of credit to the farmers; (ii) procedure of settling of outstanding loans against farmers; (iii) guidelines regarding rate of interest to be charged on loans from farmers;10(iv) relief measures for farmers affected by natural calamities; and(v) such other matters as the central government may deem necessary8 it shall be the duty of the central government to issue necessary directive to the banks and financial institutions, from time to time, for carrying out the purposes of the actcentral government to issue directive to banks and financial institutions159 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law for the time being in force in relation to any of the matters provided in this actact not to be in derogation of other laws power to make rules10 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act20 25(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 vailidity of anything previously done under that rule statement of objects and reasonsin our country farmers constitute nearly seventy per cent of the total populationbeing a vast country, natural calamities do occur in one part of the country or the other almost round the year for instance, the whole of rajasthan, parts of gujarat, maharashtra, bihar, uttar pradesh, jharkhand, madhya pradesh, chhattisgarh, etc are drought prone every year half of bihar is flooded and the other half faces drought similarly, in southern states, coastal areas are lashed with cyclones or tsunami whereas other parts face drought conditions many parts of the country face earthquake, hailstorm, cloud bursts, extreme cold conditions and other natural calamities farmers mostly bear the brunt of such natural calamities they lose their crops, livestock and many a time their dwelling units and household items including foodgrains despite this, farmers are supposed to repay their loans whether their harvest is good or not in depression, many of them end their lives thousands of farmers have committed suicide in recent years in the states of andhra pradesh, maharashtra, punjab, uttar pradesh, madhya pradesh, tamil nadu, karnataka, etc indebtedness of our farming community is a chronic and continuing problem which has to be taken care through active efforts due to increase in life expectancy, the number of old age farmers is increasing and in old age they have to suffer a number of problems compelling them to lead a miserable life since ours is a welfare state, the government is duty bound to provide social security to the farmers by giving them old age pension, remunerative prices of their produce and also provide them adequate compensation if their crops and property are affected by natural calamityhence this billnew delhi;mahendrasinh p chauhanaugust 1, 2011 financial  memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for the compensation to farmers affected by natural calamity clause 4 provides for establishment of farmers welfare fund clause 6 provides for old age pension to farmers clause 7 provides for the formulation of farmers' credit scheme the expenditure in relation to the states shall be borne out of the consolidated funds of the respective states however, the expenditure in respect of union territories shall be borne out of the consolidated fund of india the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees five thousand crore may be involved as recurring expenditure per annuma non-recurring expenditure to the tune of rupees five hundred crore is also likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 10 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 power is of a normal character lok  sabha————— a billto provide for the protection of farmers affected by natural calamities and for other welfare measures and for matters connected therewith—————(dr mahendrasinh p chauhan, mp)gmgipmrnd—1342ls(s3)—25-08-2011