A Central delegation will visit Chandigarh on Tuesday to review and assess the damage to crops in Haryana due to untimely rain and hailstorms during the month of March. The team will be headed by Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan alongwith Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan. A spokesperson of the State Government said that during the visit, the team would also meet Chief Minister Manohar lal.
He said that the team would also have interaction with other concerned Ministers and senior officers of Revenue and Disaster Management, Power, Development and Panchayats, Agriculture, Cooperation, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Food and Supplies, Irrigation and other departments.
Haryana Government had on March 24 urged the Centre to provide immediate interim relief of `500 crore to compensate the damage caused to Rabi crops of farmers due to recent unseasonal rains and hailstorm in the State. Haryana Chief Minister had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to provide immediate interim relief of `500 crore.
later, the Chief Minister had met Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan and other senior officers in New Delhi last week, demanding hike in the compensation amount, bonus on wheat, relief to those who suffered loss of up to 25 per cent and concession at the time of procurement for the difference in the quality of wheat crop.
Manohar had informed Balyan that more than 18 lakh hectares of wheat and 50 lakh hectares of mustard crop suffered loss in the state in recent rains and hailstorms.
The BJP-led State Government has come under heavy criticism from the Opposition parties over the farmers’ issue. During the recently concluded Budget Session of the Haryana Assembly, the Congress and INlD accused the BJP of ignoring farmers’ interest and had also demanded adequate compensation for the farmers.
While the Congress demanded that the farmers be given a compensation of atleast `20,000 per acre for crop damage due to heavy rains, the main Opposition Indian National lok Dal demanded that atleast `25,000 per acre should be paid.
Notably, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had also visit Haryana’s Bhiwani district on March 21 to meet the farmers whose crops were damaged. Her convoy visited eight villages of the district before she appealed to the Government to provide immediate relief to the farmers.
last week, the State stated that the preliminary reports received indicates that there has been heavy damage to crops in districts of Mewat, Palwal, Rewari and Narnaul and there are reports of damage in districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Jhajjar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Sonipat and Hisar also.
