Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service
Jhajjar, March 16
As many as 3,000 farmers have approached the offices of the Agriculture Department in Mahendragarh and Jhajjar districts for compensation under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojana (PMFBY) for their crops damaged due to rain, hailstorm and winds last week.
As many as 2,050 farmers are from Mahendragarh and 950 from Jhajjar district. The standing crops of wheat and mustard spread over 40,000 hectares have been damaged in both districts. More than 35,500 hectares in Jhajjar district have been affected while the loss of crops over 4,500 hectares has been estimated in Mahendragarh.
All these farmers are enrolled under the PMFBY while those who do not have an insurance cover are in trouble, as they will get compensation only if the state government announces a special girdwari to assess the losses. Hence, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has demanded a special girdawari for uninsured farmers and the cancellation of their crop loans, besides putting on hold their power bills.
"Rain accompanied by a hailstorm has dashed the farmers' hopes of bumper rabi crops. Heavy crop losses were suffered when it was at the maturity stage and they had made the maximum investment. Past experience has shown that private companies make super profits under the PMFBY by arbitrarily enhancing the rates of premium while they reject farmers' compensation claims for losses suffered," said Inderjit Singh, vice-president of the AIKS. He added that a special girdawari was needed to bail out uninsured farmers.
Inder Singh, Deputy Director (Agriculture), Jhajjar, said that officials of the Agriculture Department and an insurance company would soon conduct a joint survey to assess the actual losses. The compensation would be released to the farmers, as per the assessment, he added.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/3ttrPmx
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