Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday flagged off seven trucks to provide two lakh quintals of wheat seeds free of cost to the farmers who have lost their crop on around five lakh acres during the recent floods.
The CM said the farmers suffered a whopping loss due to which the state government decided to provide seeds worth ₹74 crore free of cost to them. He said the process to distribute the seeds would be completed soon. Mann said the hard working and resilient farmers of the state had played a key role in making the country self-sufficient in food production.
“The destruction caused by the floods is unimaginable as Punjab has never seen such damage before. Over 2,300 villages were submerged, affecting more than 2 million people, resulting in 56 deaths. Around seven lakh people were rendered homeless,” he said.
The CM also highlighted that 3,200 government schools, 19 colleges, 1,400 clinics and hospitals, 8,500-km roads and 2,500 bridges were damaged. “As per initial estimates, the total damage amounts to approximately ₹13,800 crore, though the actual figure can be even higher,” he added.