UP CM directs official to compensate farmers for recent crop damage

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Saturday directed officials to provide relief grants to the affected farmers by immediately surveying crop damage caused by hailstorms and rain in the last 24 hours, an official release said.

He has also expressed condolence over the loss of lives in the state due to various calamities and instructed the district magistrates to immediately distribute the permissible relief amount from the state disaster response fund (SDRF) to the families of the deceased.

The chief minister Saturday held a high-level meeting to review the situation arising out of recent untimely rains and hailstorms in various areas of the state and issued necessary guidelines to the officials.

According to the details provided by the relief commissioner's office as many as seven people have lost their lives in incidents related to lightning, drowning and man-wildlife conflict in the past 24 hours.

One life each was lost in Lucknow, Ghazipur, Hardoi and Varanasi due to lightning and two due to drowning in Bahraich and one due to human-wildlife conflict in Lakhimpur Kheri, it said.

In the last 24 hours, information about hailstorms has been received from nine districts- Pilibhit, Bareilly, Sitapur, Aligarh, Moradabad, Sonbhadra, Hamirpur, Sambhal and Unnao and assessment of crop damage is being done, it said.

In the survey conducted from March 15 till now, a total of 3,4137.52 hectares of agricultural area in 10 districts and a total of 1,02,497 farmers have been hit due to the unseasonal rains and hailstorms in the state, the report added.