Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has urged the Central Government to immediately send a Central team to assess the crop loss due to deficient rainfall in the State and provide additional assistance of Rs 1900 crore to the affected farmers.
In letters to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he apprised them of the losses due to the calamity.
Chouhan said that a large-scale survey has been started to assess the crop loss and provide relief to the affected farmers. The survey would be completed soon. A detailed memorandum based on actual assessment urging for additional assistance will be sent to the Centre soon.
Chouhan said that crops in the state have been widely affected by natural calamities like excessive rains, floods, frost etc. for last 3-4 years. Along with loss of life and property, crops of state's farmers have also been affected on large scale. During monsoon 2015, rains started timely raising hopes for good crop, but later drought gripped some parts of the state due to rains after long gap or deficient rainfall. He said that as per preliminary estimates, 114 out of 369 tehsils have been declared drought-affected and further increase in this number is possible.
The Chief Minister wrote to the Union Ministers that crops in some parts of the state have also been affected due to excessive rain in short span of time. Due to irregular rains, Kharif crops have been widely affected by caterpillars, yellow beetle, mosaic disease etc. Natural calamities have put paid to farmers' hopes and plunged them in utter financial crisis.
As per preliminary estimates, crops of 27.93 lakh farmers spread over 2600 lakh hectares in about 23000 villages have suffered widespread loss due to drought and caterpillars, yellow beetle, mosaic disease etc.
Chouhan meets PM, seeks 1900 cr drought relief for farmers
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday and urged him for additional Central assistance of Rs 1900 crore to deal with the drought situation in the state. Chouhan also apprised the Prime Minister of the loss to soybean crop. The Prime Minister assured him of all possible assistance.
During the discussions, the Chief Minister briefed the Prime Minister on his recent Japan and South Korea visit. During the half-an-hour meeting, Chouhan dwelt in detail on the widespread crop loss due to excessive rains, floods, hailstorm, frost etc. during last 3-4 years in the state.
He informed Modi that as per preliminary estimates, 114 tehsils of 23 districts have been declared drought-affected. In view of this, the state government has suspended recovery of loans from the farmers and is extending all possible assistance from its own resources.