Expressing grave concern over the meagre compensation given to the farmers for their whopping losses due to the natural disasters, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday said that he would once again take up the issue of hiking this compensation with the Government of India (GoI).
While talking to the mediapersons on the first day of his tour to assess the losses due massive rain in the waterlogged districts of the State, the Chief Minister said that `3,500 given by the Centre per acre to the farmers for compensating their loss due to the natural disaster, was too miniscule, in wake of the exorbitant hike in the prices of agriculture inputs borne by the farmers to raise the crop.
Badal said that he had time and again raised the issue of enhancing the relief amount to be disbursed amongst the farmers with the previous Union Government but as the Congress leaders were unaware about the ground situation so they had hardly paid any heed towards this genuine demand due to which the victims of the natural tragedy were suffering a lot.
He said that with the change of guard at the Centre, hope for adequate compensation for the victims of the tragedy have been renewed and hopefully the NDA Government would look into this matter sympathetically.
The Chief Minister said that the State Government was fully seized with the hardships of the flood victims and they want to extend a helping hand to them by giving adequate financial assistance as compensation. However, he said that the riders imposed by the Union Government barred them from helping the victims of this natural tragedy which was unfortunate. The Union Government must adopt liberal approach for duly compensating the flood victims in this hour of crisis.
Batting for the need of ‘micro planning’ at village level to combat the problem of water logging in the State, the Chief Minister said that every villager from the water logged districts would have to play a proactive role for dealing with this situation.
He said that the top brass of the State Government has been deployed by him in these areas to ensure proper assess of the loss suffered by the victims of this tragedy besides ensuring prompt relief to them. Badal directed the district administration to meticulously evaluate the losses incurred by the residents of the villages so that they could be duly compensated for it.
Earlier, interacting with the victims of the nature’s fury at village Panniwala, Midda, Bodiwala, Ratta Khera, Aalamwala, Aspaal, Pakki Tibbi, Kattianwali, Saraawan Bodla, Bhagwanpura, Kolianwali and others, the Chief Minister said that the State Government would make all out efforts to ease out financial burden on the farmers besides extending a helping hand to them in this hour of crisis. Badal announced that the Cooperative Department has been directed to postpone the recovery of loans from the farmers in wake of havoc created due to the rain.
Expressing concern over the huge loss incurred due to this natural tragedy, the Chief Minister said that this was the biggest loss of property and crops ever since the State had been facing the chronic problem of water logging. Badal said that he was himself supervising all the relief operations to ensure that no stone was left unturned in helping the people in these difficult times.
He said that the Punjabis have been blessed with indomitable spirit of overcoming such challenges bravely and with the efforts of State Government, the curse of water logging would be eliminated from the State.