Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal on Friday announced that compensation of Rs 12,000 per acre would be given to those farmers whose crop has been damaged due to water logging and said that it has also been decided to give compensation of Rs 6000 per acre to those farmers who were unable to sow their crop due to the water logging.
He also announced an online portal to further streamline the Girdawari system.
Speaking during the one-day winter session of Haryana Vidhan Sabha here, he also announced to include raw Potato in the Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana.
The chief minister said that Girdawari is being conducted in the State to assess the damage to crop due to hailstorm in different parts of the State this month. He said that apart from this, compensation on account of damage to crop due to fire has been distributed by the respective Deputy Commissioners.
Letters have been written to all the DCs directing them to give details of the remaining such cases so that compensation could be disbursed to the left out farmers. With the announcement of hike of Rs 10 per quintal in the sugarcane prices yesterday, Haryana has become the first state in the country to increase the prices of sugarcane this year as none of State has so far increased sugarcane prices. Haryana is also the first state in the Country who is giving highest price of sugarcane to its growers.
The Chief Minister said that with a view to remove shortcomings in the girdawari conducted manually by the department concerned and enhance accuracy to assess the damage to crops due to water logging, rain, hailstorms etc, it has now been decided to set up an online portal. Under this, the farmer have to give details concerning its crop and area under cultivation on this portal which would be double checked by departments of Agriculture and Farmers’s Welfare and Revenue so that the farmers do not face any problem while getting claims from insurance companies and banks. He said that the farmers could upload the information with the help of village-level entrepreneur (VLEs) at Atal Seva Kendras set up village level. A toll-free number would also be started to assist the farmers, said the Chief Minister.
Referring to the Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana, the Chief Minister said that now the raw-Potato would also be included under this scheme. At present, four vegetables of Potato, tomato, cauliflower and onion are being covered under this scheme. In any farmers gets price less than the minimum support price for these crops, the State Government would cover the price deficit of crops for farmers, he said adding that as many as 18,000 farmers have so far register themselves for 48,000 acres under this scheme.
He said that besides government and the concerned departments, it is also the duty of MLAs of even opposition parties to make the farmers aware in their respective areas of such welfare schemes so that maximum people could be benefited. He said that in case of procurement of Bajra, 1.75 lakh farmers in the State registered themselves and the government has procured bajra of such farmers at the rate of Rs 1950 per quintal and transferred the amount directly into their bank accounts.
Manohar Lal said that the present State Government has taken several decisions in the interest of farming community. Soft loan of cooperative banks are being provided to farmers on zero per cent rate of interest. Apart from this, compensation amounting to about Rs 890 crore has been distributed to the farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) during the last three years in the State of which Rs 229 crore has been given to farmers of district Sirsa alone.
Taking a dig at the previous Congress Government in the State, the Chief Minister said that the Congress remained in power from the year 2005 to 2014, but could not get the Swaminathan Commission Report implemented in the State. He said that one of the recommendations of the Commission was that the farmers should be given compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre on account of crop damage but taking one step ahead, the present State Government announced compensation of Rs 12,000 per acre.
He said the State Government has taken several steps towards the distribution of water to redress the problems of water logging and ensure water in the deficient areas.
The chief minister said the present State Government has also restarted the work on the Lakhwar Dam which was hanging fire for the last several years. The Chief Minister said that he himself visited the Dam and recently a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between six states including Haryana for the construction of this dam. He reminded that in the last meeting of State Cabinet held recently here, the State Government has given NOC for the Kishau and Renuka Dams also.
He said that the State Government has also made special efforts to ensure water in the Nuh area. The work has been undertaken for the development of Kotla Lake.