Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan convened a meeting of some of his Cabinet colleagues and at length discussed as how to compensate the farmers who faced crop loss due to the untimely rain and hailstorm. It was also discussed as to how to help the farmers, in a situation when the Central Government has declined to give bonus to the farmers during wheat procurement.The Chief Minister asked his Cabinet colleagues to get the survey of the damaged crops as soon as possible and especially it should be ensured that no affected farmer is left out in the exercise. “The Government would compensate even single grain of the crop if damaged in the rain,” he added.
Regarding compensating the bonus on procurement, Chouhan sought suggestions from the Ministers. Most of them were of the view that the subsidy on fertilisers should be increased, while some opined that insurance cover to the farmers or their crops could be increased. Notably, by abolishing the wheat procurement scheme, the State Government is saving `1,300 crore. The CM is of the view that farmers should benefit in some way.
Since most of the Ministers were in their constituencies, the pre-scheduled Cabinet meeting on Friday was cancelled. On Saturday, only a few Ministers attended the meeting. They included Transport Minister Bhupendra Singh, Agriculture Minister Gaurishankar Bisen, Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava, Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya, Revenue Minister Rampal Singh and Health Minister Narottam Mishra.
Bisen informed that the survey work has already commenced and the data collected so far reveals that 311 villages were affected in the present weather conditions. The most affected areas include seven divisions - Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Rewa, Ujjain and Sagar.
State BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan and State organisational general secretary Arvind Menon were also present at the meeting.