Haryana govt defends Rs 2,3 as crop damage compensation

Haryana Government has defended the compensation amount of Rs 2 and 3 for crop damage to the farmers of Beri tehshil in Jhajjar district reasoning that each farmer had been compensated according to his share of land.
The Hooda government charged the opposition with politicising the issue.
"Each farmer of Beri tehsil in Jhajjar district whose crop was damaged due to water logging after the rains in 2011 has been given adequate compensation according to his share of the land, but the Opposition is politicising the issue," Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's Political Adviser, Virender Singh said in a government release here yesterday.

In 2011, the state government had declared 10,316 people as eligible for compensation for the damage caused in 3,269 acres of land due to water-logging, he said.
The amount of compensation had been fixed on the basis of the total number of shares in the related khewat (land demarcation), their shares and the percentage of damage to the crops.
Singh said that those criticising the government on the amount of compensation paid to the farmers, should introspect what the INLD Government had done.

"Under the previous government, only Rs 1,000, Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 per acre was given as compensation whereas, the Hooda Government has increased this amount by more than two-and-a-half times. At present, the compensation of Rs 2,500, Rs 3,500, Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,500 per acre is given for various crops on the basis of the percentage of the damage," he said.

Explaining the rationale behind the calculation where cheque amount of Rs 2, 3 and Rs 6 had been issued to the affected farmers, Virender said that "Satnarayan of village Godhri whose share in Khewat (land demarcation) number two, Khasra number 20/13 and total area 1/1680 in eight kanal (an acre of land), the amount of compensation at the rate of Rs 3,500 per acre worked out to Rs 2.08.
Similarly, another stakeholder Tekchand has a share of 1/1260 in the same Khewat, on the basis of which his compensation works out to Rs 2.77".
Virender said that though Tekchand's compensation worked out to Rs 2.77, "but he has been given a cheque for Rs 3.