PB govt grants compensations to Indo-Pak border farmers

The Punjab government today said it has started granting compensation of Rs 3000 per acre to farmers owning land across the barbed wire fence on the Indo-Pak border, which it alleged has been denied to them since the last ten years by the Congress-led UPA government.
Presiding over a function here, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said that compensation worth Rs 99 lakh will be disbursed among 3,285 farmers, belonging to 47 border villages of Amritsar district, who have have 3,327 acres of land across the fence.
Badal said the Punjab government has released Rs 6 crore for compensation this year from its "limited resources" as he alleged that the UPA Government did not bother to come to the aid of Punjabi farmers despite requests made by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to the Prime Minister as well as the Union Home Minister.

Nearly 20,000 acres of land in six border districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Ferozepur, Tarn Taran and Fazilka is situated beyond the international fencing in Indian Territory.
Badal claimed that the scheme was initiated more than ten years back by the central government led by the NDA but had been discontinued during the UPA rule.
Punjab Revenue and Public Relations Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the Congress had always accorded step-motherly treatment to Punjab farmers and that the farmers of the border region were the worst affected.

In another major relief for border farmers, the Deputy CM said every farmer having land across the barbed fence would be awarded a tubewell connection by December this year.

Around 2,000 tube well connections have already been issued to farmers having land across the fencing, he said.
He said besides various restrictions, farmers could only work limited hours at their fields due to security issues.