Govt ignores farmers’ demand; adopts old compensation policy
Thursday, 24/09/2015
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BATHINDA: Ignoring the demand of farmers regarding adequate and proper compensation for damage to crops, the Punjab government has decided to follow its earlier policy of giving compensation.
The state government has started distributing compensation to the farmers, who had uprooted their cotton crop due to severe attack of whitefly pest.
The government has already announced `10 crore of compensation for affected farmers. As per government records, the famers ploughed back 11,780 acres of damaged cotton fields, out of which, 3,727 acres fall in Fazilka, 2,090 in Bathinda, 5,000 acres in Muktsar, 539 in Mansa, 398 in Faridkot and 26 in Barnala.
On the first day, `3 lakh was given to 120 farmers of three villages in the district. According to information, the government has provided `8,000 compensation per acre.
Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Basant Garg said that 102 farmers of Mehraj village were given a compensation of `2.64 lakh for 33 acres of affected crop, while 11 farmers from Sidana village were provided with `22,000 for a loss of 2.75 acres. Likewise, `14,000 was distributed among farmers for a loss of crop over 1.75 acres of land.
FARMERS’ DEMAND
However, farmers were demanding `40,000 per acre besides a compensation of `20,000 for the labourers who pluck cotton. Joginder Singh Ugarahan, president, Bhartiya Kisan Union, said, the government was making joke of the farmers by giving them such a meagre compensation, which is not enough to make arrangements for the sowing of the next crop.
