Over 200 Gujarat farmers give Rs 2,000 each to PM CARES fund

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Ahmedabad: Over 200 farmers from Amreli and Bhavnagar districts in Gujarat have donated their Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi amount of Rs 2,000 to the PM CARES fund set up to fight the coronavirus outbreak, officials said on Friday.

As part of the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, farmers get Rs 6,000 as minimum income support in three equal installments, the last of which was disbursed recently, they said.

"The government takes care of farmers by giving us financial support in the form of Kisan Nidhi. Now it is time for us to help. Several farmers from our village have donated their Rs 2,000 Kisan Nidhi amount to PM CARES fund," Ukabhai Bhatti of Ditla village of Amreli district said.

BJP leader from Amreli, Dileep Sanghani, said as many as 200 farmers from Amreli have come forward and deposited cheques of Rs 2,000 each into the fund at Amreli District Cooperative Bank since Thursday.

"I had appealed earlier that farmers who do not need this money should come forward to help the Centre in fighting coronavirus. Till now, 200 farmers have already deposited Rs 2,000 each into the special fund for fighting the pandemic. On an average, 100 farmers are visiting the bank to donate the money they had received under Kisan Nidhi scheme," Sanghani said, adding that farmers from Bhavnagar were also lending a helping hand.

"Farmers have always helped the country during difficult times. A total of 56 farmers of our village have decided to donate Rs 2,000 of the Kisan Nidhi scheme to the fund meant to fight the virus outbreak," said Kaushik Vekaria, sarpach of Amreli's Devrajia village.

"Sixty farmers of our village have decided to donate the Kisan Nidhi in to the PM Cares Fund," Vikramsinh Gohil, a farmer from Rupavati village of Bhavnagar district, said.