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Haryana assembly session: Opposition picks holes in Khattar govt’s crop compensation process
Members of the Opposition in Haryana Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday pointed out deficiencies in the process to provide crop-damage compensation to farmers
Members of the Opposition in Haryana Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday pointed out deficiencies in the process to provide crop-damage compensation to farmers.
Speaking during a calling attention motion, the Opposition MLAs said the state government should provide adequate financial compensation to farmers who suffered crop damage due to the vagaries of weather.
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Abhay Chautala said standing crops on 1.14 lakh acre were damaged due to rains and hailstorm. He said farmers sowing mustard crops incurred a cost of ₹70,000 per acre but got meagre crop-damage compensation. He said a compensation amount of at least ₹50,000 per acre should be paid to farmers by the state government.
There were heated exchanges between Congress MLA Kiran Choudhry and Haryana agriculture minister JP Dalal, with Choudhry blaming Dalal of trying to divert attention of the House from real issues by interrupting her time and again.
Highlighting the deficient process to determine compensation, Congress MLA Varun Chaudhary said revenue officials such as patwaris generally don’t do an objective and fair assessment of crop damage. He said the surveys for crop damage are done sitting at one place; revenue officials do not visit each field.
‘State to give right to farmers to upload crop loss report online’
In his reply, Haryana deputy chief minister and revenue minister Dushyant Chautala said special girdawari has been ordered to compensate for the damage caused by unseasonal rains and hailstorm. The state government is also going to give right to farmers to make and upload their crop loss report online, he added.
Dushyant told the House that the revenue department conducts general girdawari of Kharif crops from August 5 to September 5 and Rabi crops from February 1 to March 1. He said on March 2, all deputy commissioners were directed to send reports of damaged crop by getting special girdawari done.
The minister said compensation amount of Rs. 3,386 crore has been released by the state government from October 26, 2014 to February 28, 2022 for the damage caused to crops due to various natural calamities.
He added that damage due to unseasonal rains and hailstorm has been reported in Bhiwani, Sonepat, Kaithal, Hisar, Ambala, Rewari, Charkhi Dadri, Mahendragarh, Rohtak, Jind and Yamunanagar, while no crop damage has been reported in Karnal, Nuh, Fatehabad, Panchkula, Palwal, Panipat, Sirsa, Faridabad, Gurugram, Jhajjar and Kurukshetra.
‘State’s compensation for crop damage higher than that of Centre’
Dushyat said crops have been sown on about 19 lakh acre during the Rabi 2021-22 season in Haryana, which is expected to yield about 15 lakh metric tonne. He said the norms framed by the state government for compensation for damage caused to crops due to natural calamity are higher than those norms of the central government.
He said ₹15,000 per acre is provided if crop loss is 75% or more. If the loss is 50% to 75% then ₹12,000 per acre is paid and if it is 25% to 50% then ₹9,000 per acre is paid as compensation by the state government.
He informed the assembly that assistance is provided to each shareholder, subject to a minimum limit of ₹500 per farmer and a maximum of five acre of sown area.
‘Three-member committee setup’
Dushyant said a three-member committee will be constituted to visit villages of Gohana assembly constituency of Congress MLA Jagbir Malik where crops were damaged due to heavy rains.
MLAs Jagbir Malik and Nirmal Rani (BJP) will accompany the committee members.
The deputy CM announced to set up the committee in response to a question of Congress MLA Malik who alleged that the reply of the government about damage to crop in his assembly segment was incorrect. The committee will submit report within a week of inspection.
‘PWD resthouse to be constructed in Nuh’
Meanwhile, in response to a question of Congress MLA Mohd Ilyas, Dushyant said a PWD resthouse will be constructed at Pinangwan in Nuh district. On construction of a resthouse in Punhana, Chautala said possibilities of construction will be explored after conducting a survey in the next 15 days.
