Haryana govt announces Rs 1,092 cr farmer compensation

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today announced compensation of Rs 1,092 crore to farmers affected by inclement weather conditions, to be disbursed by May 15.
Noting the huge crop loss due to adverse weather conditions, he said the government has decided on compensation of Rs 1,092 crore to be disbursed by May 15.
Of the total amount, Rs 720 crore will be provided by the Centre while rest will be provided by the state government, he said.
The Chief Minister slammed the previous Congress-led state government for "unwarranted delay" and paying "paltry" sum of compensation to farmers for their damaged crops.

"How insensitive the previous state government was to farmers' problems could be gauged from the amount of compensation paid as it was not the first time natural calamity wrecked havoc in the state," he said.
Khattar alleged that just Rs 18 crore was disbursed among farmers in year 2011-12 followed by Rs 47 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 95 crore in 2013-14.

"In 2014-15, Rs 243 crore was given to farmers after we (BJP) came to power. We released Rs 22 crore for crop loss in September 2013 and Rs 97 crore for the loss in March 2014 after coming to power.

"There had been delay of two years in disbursing compensation amount to affected farmers," he said.
"During previous regime, compensation amount was not released even by concerned Deputy Commissioners. So you can very well imagine what would have been the kind of governance at that time," he told reporters here.
The Chief Minister further said that farmers used to get a paltry sum of compensation of various amounts ranging form Rs 10 to Rs 1,000 during the Congress rule.
The Haryana government in its special girdawari report till April 22, has assessed crop damage to over 13 lakh acres in the state because of untimely rains and hailstorm.

Out of which, 3.17 lakh acres was hit with crop loss between 76 to 100 per cent, 1.92 lakh acres with crop loss between 51 to 75 per cent and 8.24 lakh acres between 25 and 50 per cent.
"Administrative machinery will be deployed to ensure rain-hit farmers get their due compensation by May 15," Khattar said.