Centre to roll out national helpline for farmers in 2025: Key details

This plan was first announced by Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. (File photo/PTI)

The Centre is planning to launch a nationwide toll-free helpline number in 2025 to support farmers and help resolve their grievances. The call centre will be set up in Delhi-NCR, reported CNN-News18.

A single contact helpline number will be initiated to address farmer grievances with respect to schemes implemented in the agriculture sector by the central government and state/UT governments, provide information related to various ongoing schemes regarding farmers, and help the Centre improve farmers services by resolving grievances in a timely manner, according to the report.

The project is expected to become operational soon with the call centre likely to have a workforce of at least 100 employees.

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This plan was first announced by Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan earlier this year in August. Bids for the project are likely to be sealed early next year.

According to News18, the helpline number will be accessible through landline as well as mobile numbers of all telecom networks from 6 am to 10 pm on all seven days of the week to address farmer grievances. The calls initiated by farmers from a particular state/UT will be assigned to the Grievance Tele Advisors (GTAs) for that state/UT in the Farmers Grievance Redressal System.

Reportedly, the helpline number will also enable the farmers to register their grievances in 22 official languages.

In addition to this, an outgoing call facility will also be established in the Integrated Command and Control Centre at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi, which will facilitate the officers in the Agriculture Ministry to randomly make calls to selected farmers and get feedback on the grievances resolved.

This development is significant as it comes at a time when Punjab and Haryana farmers are demanding a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP).