A total of Rs 11 crore was sanctioned to Prakasam district as assistance at Rs 5,000 each to 23 lakh farmers who failed to benefit under the agricultural loan waiver scheme, said the minister for transport, Mr Kanna Lakhsminarayana. Speaking at the rythu sadassu programme at the Kandula Obula Reddy Gundlakamma project on Sunday, the minister said the government is supplying urea, pesticides and seeds for the next agricultural season at subsidised rates. In 2004, only Rs 7,800 crore was given as agricultural loans but now this had increased to Rs 25,000 crore to 40 lakh farmers of the state, he said. Innovative technologies were yielding good results in agriculture hence peasants should make good use of the same to produce high quality, and good yields, Mr Lakshminarayana said. As much as Rs 47 crore was released to Prakasam district as assistance to the victims of the untimely rains in February and they were going to disburse the same from June 10, said district collector, Mr K. Devanand. Authorities had already urged government to give aid to lessee farmers and they were hoping for a positive response, he said. He said 28,000 lessee farmers would get bank loans in the district and 2,74,000 farmers a assistance of Rs 600 crore with the agricultural loan waiver scheme in the district. Santanutalapadu legislator, Mr Dara Sambaiah, said 30,000 farmers will get water from the Gundlakamma project for irrigation and drinking water purposes. Government had utterly failed to purchase damaged chickpea stocks from farmers due to the untimely rains in February through Markfed, said Addanki legislator, Mr Karanam Balram Krishna Murthy. Government had set a price of Rs 1,700 per quintal for damaged chickpea but Markfed had not procured a single kg even after five months, he rued. There was chaos for some time in the sadassu when Mr Srinivas Rao and Mr Venkata Reddy, farmers of J. Pangalur and Adipudi villages raised the issue of the difficulty in the agricultural loan waiver schemes but other farmers stopped them from disrupting the meeting. Ongole MLA, Mr Balineni Srinivas Reddy, MLC, Mr G.V. Seshu, Martur legislator, Mr Gottipati Ravi Kumar, addressed farmers. District authorities set up 10 stalls on the occasion.