Few takers for govt's SKY scheme, state plans to reincentivise farmers

The Gujarat government has hit a roadblock with its Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY) scheme, launched on June 23. Hardly 100 farmers have shown interest, while the government was targeting more than 10,000 farmers.

The state government is now planning to incentivise the farmers further, to install solar panels in their farms and earn money through it.

Sources in the government said: "We were expecting more than 10,000 farmers to come forward to opt for the SKY scheme, but the response is too poor. Hardly 100 farmers have shown interest, which is why we haven't begun work yet. The farmers are not interested and there are many reasons behind it — expense they ought to bear for the installation of the solar panels in farms tops the list."

"Farmers are concerned about regular maintenance and other issues too, but they are demanding more subsidies so that their share is almost nil. The government has been thinking to re-incentivise the scheme after the poor response. It is, however, not possible to give almost 100 per cent subsidies, but it can be increased a bit," added the sources.

State government has been trying to make the scheme popular among farmers. A special interactive session between energy minister Saurabh Patel and farmers was held a few days ago, at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar and in Jetalpur village of Ahmedabad district, but that too failed to convince the farmers.

"It is also possible that farmers are busy with sowing activity these days, which is why they haven't shown much interest. We hope they would respond to us once the sowing is complete. The government has been trying to propagate the scheme through BJP organisations working on the field, too, to earn good results," the official further added. A special meeting between the deputy CM Nitin Patel, energy minister Saurabh Patel and minister of state Pradipsinh Jadeha was held on Wednesday.

POWER PLAY

Hardly 100 farmers have shown interest, while the government was targeting more than 10,000 farmers.
Farmers want more subsidies so that their share drops to almost nil.
The govt feels making changes will help attract more farmers.

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