Chandigarh, August 8
The Haryana Government today declared the entire state as drought-affected and announced a package of relief and remedial measures for the farmers and demanded Rs 1100 crore from the Centre.
This was announced by Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala after presiding over a Cabinet meeting here today. He said that ‘‘abiana’’ and ‘‘malia’’ of all farmers in the state had been remitted and their short-term cooperative loans would be converted into medium-term loans.
The recovery of electricity bills for kharif-2002 of agricultural tubewells would also be deferred for six months in case of those farmers whose crops had suffered a loss of 50 per cent or more as per the special ‘girdawari’. The state government was working out the full details of the damage and the exact position would be known after the completion of special girdawari on August 20.
Financial compensation would be provided to individual farmers or families after the results of the special girdawari were available.
Mr Chautala said all-out efforts would be made to provide maximum possible relief to the people.
The decision to declare the entire state as drought-affected was taken after making an overall assessment of the drought situation in the state based on the rainfall data and reports about the condition of crops received from various quarters.
It was observed that as a result of the worsening drought situation, the tentative amount of relief required from the Central Government had gone up to about Rs 1100 crore and seven lakh metric tonnes of wheat as against Rs 615.21 crore and 3.61 lakh metric tonnes of wheat demanded initially at a meeting with the Union Agriculture Minister held on July 24.
Scanty rain had adversely affected sowing as well as transplantation of kharif crops with the result that a sizeable area had remained unsown and the condition of standing crops was largely bad. Canal water supply in the Western Yamuna Canal command area had also decreased considerably.
According to the Agriculture Department, the area covered under the kharif crop is estimated to be 18.41 lakh hectares as against a target of 27.96 lakh hectares, a shortfall of 9.55 lakh hectares.
