Puducherry, Mar 4 (IANS): Puducherry Agriculture Minister Theni Jayakumar on Friday announced an assistance of Rs 7.1 crore for farmers whose crops were damaged in rain in the union territory.

The financial aid is in addition to an amount of Rs 6 crore sanctioned by the Union Government as rain relief for the affected farmers.

Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan made an announcement about the Central assistance on Wednesday.

The government of Puducherry will provide relief at Rs 20,000 per hectare.

The agriculture department along with the state revenue department had assessed that 2985.6 hectares of paddy, vegetables and tuber crops were affected.

A total of 487.79 hectares of agriculture crops were affected in Karaikal and 79.53 hectares in Yanam also.

The assistance will be provided to 6,054 farmers in the union territory which include 5,749 small and marginal farmers (SMF) and 305 other farmers.

Theni Jayakumar in the statement said that the relief will be directly credited into the accounts provided by the farmers, and the agriculture department officials, including Directors, will ensure that the affected get the relief amount.