CHANDIGARH: The opposition parties targeted the BJP-JJP government on the issue of crop damage and compensation, in the Haryana assembly on Wednesday.
While deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala and agriculture and farmers welfare minister Jai Parkash Dalal claimed the compensation worth crores of rupees has been given to farmers for the damaged crop after a special girdawari (inspection of crop damage by revenue staff) in the affected area, opposition leaders — CLP leader Kiran Choudhary, INLD MLA Abhay Chautala, Congress MLAs Jagbir Malik, Induraj Narwal and deputy leader of opposition Aftab Ahmed and MLA Varun Chaudhary — termed the survey as inadequate.
All this happened during the calling attention motion on the issue of crop damage due to waterlogging, untimely rains, hailstorm over the period of past four months.
Contrary to the claims by Dalal and Dushyant, opposition MLAs alleged inadequate work done by officials involved in the girdawari. The MLAs even announced names of villages affected due to waterlogging and hailstorm, but were not covered during inspection. “Some districts like Mewat were completely ignored. Despite districts witnessing the worst, the details provided by the agriculture minister does not have any mention of Mewat. It has to be re-looked,” Aftab said.
Kiran Choudhary, who claimed to have travelled to six sub-divisions in and around Tosham constituency, talked about the problems faced by farmers on account of waterlogging and hailstorm. “At a time when the CM and agriculture minister had organised a cat walk for animals in Loharu, we had visited the affected farmers. Farmers had alleged that following the hailstorm, the crop was completely damaged, which couldn’t be used even as fodder for animals. The insurance companies too have not released anything to the farmers,” said Choudhary.
Abhay Chautala claimed that the untimely rains and hailstorm had badly impacted the mustard and wheat crop. “The government has to give an adequate compensation. Special girdwaris should be ordered for the same. We were expecting a bumper crop this time, but natural calamities have destroyed all hopes,” he said.
The deputy chief minister said the state government has released a compensation of Rs 3,386.54 crore from October 26, 2014 to February 28, 2022 for the damage caused to crops due to various natural calamities. He said the damage to crops due to unseasonal rains and hailstorm has been reported from Bhiwani, Sonipat, Kaithal, Hisar, Ambala, Rewari, Charkhi Dadri, Mahendragarh, Rohtak, Jind and Yamunanagar, while Karnal, Nuh, Fatehabad, Panchkula, Palwal, Panipat, Sirsa, Faridabad, Gurugram, Jhajjar and Kurukshetra have not seen any damage to crops.
He said crops have been sown on about 19 lakh acres during Rabi 2021-22 season in the state, which is expected to yield about 15 lakh metric tonnes. He said the norms framed by the Haryana government for compensation for damage caused to crops due to natural calamity are higher than the norms of Government of India. He said the state government provides Rs 15,000 per acre in case of 75% or more loss, Rs 12,000 per acre in case of 50 to 75% loss, and Rs 9,000 per acre in case of 25 to 50% loss. He said assistance is provided to each shareholder subject to a minimum limit of Rs 500 per farmer and a maximum of 5 acres of sown area.
