Coming to the aid of farmers whose crops have been damaged by natural calamity, Punjab Government on Wednesday announced to enhance the compensation to Rs12,000 per acre — a 50 per cent hike over the earlier. The landmark decision will be implemented from June 20, 2017.
Announcing this, the state Revenue Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria on Wednesday said that the State Government has enhanced the compensation for damaged crops of 76 to 100 per cent due to inclement weather from Rs8,000 to Rs12,000 per acre.
The enhanced compensation had come as a big relief to farmers who had suffered heavy crop damage due to the bad weather, he added.
Notably, the compensation was earlier enhanced to Rs8,000 per acre for damaged crop of 76 to 100 per cent on April 1, 2015.
The state Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Financial Commissioner (Revenue) Vini Mahajan said that the government was giving Rs2,000 per acre for damaged crop of 26 to 32 per cent and Rs5,400 per acre for damaged crop of 33 to 75 per cent.
Sarkaria said that the state government is fully committed to ensure welfare of the farmers and doing everything possible to bail them out from the current agrarian crisis.
He further said that Punjab Government has already launched debt waiver scheme.
To uplift the peasant community, the Minister demanded, the Centre should implement the Swaminathan Commission report in letter and spirit under which the MSP is to be determined at the cost of production plus 50 per cent.