No reduction in relief to farmers even if development works suffer
Bhopal : Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that farmers’ interests is his top priority. No reduction in relief to farmers will be made even if development works suffer. The Chief Minister stated this while holding discussions with farmers of Gwalior districts affected by unseasonal rain and hailstorm at Gwalior today. He consoled farmers in their hour of crisis. Chief Minister visited affected fields and gave a patient hearing to farmers’ problems.
Chief Minister said that the farmers with cent percent crop loss will be provided wheat, rice and salt at Re. one per kg till next crop. He said that interest on agriculture loans in hailstorm-affected areas will be paid by the state government. He said that the recovery of agriculture loans and electricity bills from these farmers would also be suspended. The government will provide them loans at zero percent interest rate for next crop. Farmers will have to repay only 90 percent of loan while remaining 10 percent will be borne by the government.
Chief Minister said that survey of crops affected by unseasonal rain and hailstorm will be undertaken with maximum transparency. Survey will be done jointly by staff of Revenue, Agriculture and Panchayats departments. He warned the staff that no negligence will be tolerated in the survey. He said that list of survey will be displayed on Gram Panchayat’s notice board. If any farmer is aggrieved, survey of his field will be conducted again. Chief Minister said that as per RBC, every affected farmer will be given relief at the rate of Rs. 15 thousand per hectare. Affected farmers will also be provided benefit of crop insurance scheme.
Chief Minister said that the state government had distributed relief worth Rs. 4,800 crore from its resources to farmers whose soybean crops were damaged. Shri Chouhan said that marriages of affected farmers’ daughters will be solemnised under Mukhyamantri Kanya Vivah Yojana. He clarified that benefit of the scheme will also be given to farmers not covered under it. The Chief Minister said that Parsen, Jaghara and Maheshwara lakes of Murar tahasil will be repaired. Employment to the needy will also be given in these works.
It was informed that as per initial assessment, 6,754 hectare fields of 7,357 farmers in 87 villages of the district have been affected by unseasonal rain and hailstorm. According to it, crops have suffered 50 percent damage in 35 villages, 25 to 50 percent in 13 villages and less than 25 percent in 39 villages.
