Amid report of giving a meager compensation of as low as Rs65 to farmers, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has asked officials to give a minimum of Rs1,500 compensation to the farmers who lost their crop to inclement weather. Following this, Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan has asked DMs to revise the compensation rate and pay minimum of Rs1,500 to each farmer. In a terse order he said actions will be taken against the district magistrates for showing laxity in providing relief to the farmers.
The decision was taken after reports galore about meager compensation being paid to the farmers. It came to light that some farmers received compensation cheques as low as of Rs63 and Rs100. Piqued over such apathy, many farmers refused compensation while others have decided not to encash the cheque. Mohammad Sabir of Wajidpur village of Faizabad district said the State Government gave only Rs100 as compensation for five bighas of land. Another farmer Mohammad Shahid from the same village got Rs63 compensation cheque against the loss of crops on three bighas. Many farmers in neighbouring Moradabad village have received cheques of Rs186, Rs187, Rs188, Rs200 and Rs300.
Interestingly, the cheques to Faizabad villagers were distributed in the presence of Social Welfare Minister Avadhesh Prasad on April 5. Faizabad’s acting District Magistrate (DM) Aravind Malappa Bangari blamed the concerned lekhpals for the carelessness. In Para Oji village in Hamirpur, five farmers got cheques of Rs750 each. In Kanpur Dehat, a farmer got a cheque of Rs750 of Baroda Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank as a compensation for his crop loss.
In Meerut, farmers refused to accept cheque because of its abysmally low compensation amount. In Mathura, where the loss of crop was more than 50 per cent, the authorities have sought a compensation of Rs331 crore, while in Bareilly, where the crop loss is just over 33 per cent has sought Rs177 crore.