CM Announces Rs10 Crore For Compensation To Farmers In Malwa Belt
Author(s): City Air NewsPunjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal on Monday during a high level meeting with the delegation of Bharti Kissan Union (Sidhupur) led by its president Mr.Pishora Singh at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh. Chandigarh,...
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Sep 14, 2015 09:30
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Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal on Monday during a high level meeting with the delegation of Bharti Kissan Union (Sidhupur) led by its president Mr.Pishora Singh at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh.
Chandigarh, September 14, 2015: Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal today announced to immediately release Rs.10 crore for the payment of compensation to the farmers, who had already ploughed back their cotton crop extensively damaged due to attack from whitefly in an area of 11,780 acres spreading over six districts of Malwa belt.
A decision to this effect was taken by Mr. Badal during a high level meeting with the delegation of Bharti Kissan Union (Sidhupur) led by its president Mr. Pishora Singh here at Punjab Bhawan this afternoon.
Mr. Badal was apprised in the meeting by the officials of revenue department that out of 11,780 acres area ploughed back by the farmers, 5,000 acres fell in Sri Muktsar Sahib district, 3,727 in Fazilka, 2,090 in Bathinda, 539 in Mansa, 398 in Faridkot and 26 in Barnala districts.
Interacting with the members of the delegation, the Chief Minister assured the cotton growers that they would be duly compensated for the substantial loss incurred by them due to whitefly attack. Mr. Badal said that the state government has already taken a conscious decision to bail out those farmers who had ploughed back their fields owing to pest attack from whitefly. Referring to the damage caused to the standing cotton crops due to whitefly, the Chief Minister clearly asked the revenue department to complete the entire procedure of girdawari in these adversely affected districts of the Malwa belt positively within next 10 days, which has already begun from September 7. In another significant decision, the Chief Minister also directed the revenue department to cover the other crops like guar and vegetables besides cotton which had been worst affected by the whitefly for compensation on the similar pattern as followed in case of damaged cotton crop.
Subsequently, after disposing off the objections raised by farmers in this regard, the revenue officials would release the compensation amount to the affected farmers as per the assessment report by the end of this month. The Chief Minister also directed the Revenue Department to reiterate its directions to make the payment of compensation directly to the cultivators in case of land was given to the cultivators by the owners on contract farming so as to mitigate hardships caused to them in receiving payments from the revenue officials.
The Chief Minister categorically said that anyone responsible for supplying pesticides and insecticides of spurious quality to the farmers would not be spared at any cost. He informed the delegation that the state police department had already taken 208 samples of such substandard pesticides from the dealers in the Malwa belt and an appropriate action would be taken against such erring suppliers after the enquiry. He also asked the Director Bureau of Investigation to immediately take suitable action against those dealers who were recklessly disposing off huge quantities of such fake pesticides being flown into the nearby canals just to evade police action or an enquiry. The Chief Minister unequivocally stated that such dealers who had done havoc with the cotton and other crops nurtured with their blood, sweat and tears would be dealt with severely.
Conceding to another demand of the farmer’s delegation, the Chief Minister asked both the departments of Agriculture and Power to issue requisite notifications to initiate procedure for the release of new tubewell connections in the wake of National Green Tribunal’s decision so as to release these connections to the eligible applicants well before the sowing of next Rabi crops.
Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Agriculture Minister Jathedar Tota Singh, Additional Chief Secretary Development Mr. Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. S.K. Sandhu, Secretary Power Mr. A. Venu Prasad, Secretary Revenue Mr. Samir Kumar, Chairman Punjab State Power Corporation Limited Mr. K.D. Chaudhary, Secretary Expenditure Mr. Jaspal Singh, Director Agriculture Mr. Mangal Singh Sandhu and Director Bureau of Investigation Mr. IPS Sahota.
Date:
Monday, September 14, 2015
