Farmers to meet Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Chief Secretary over relief

Parvesh Sharma

Sangrur, September 18

Many days after the Punjab government released crores for flood-affected areas of Sangrur district, farmers of various villages are still waiting for relief. Many have alleged that only a few farmers have received aid and have urged Chief Secretary (CS) and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to get a high-level inquiry conducted in this regard.

“I have lost 18.5 acres of paddy as floodwater remained accumulated here for many days. Firstly, the Sangrur administration failed to plug the breach for many days and now we are not getting the required financial aid,” alleged Jasvir Singh, a farmer from Phullad village.

As per sources, farmers in 30 villages have lost 38,000 acres of paddy. As per the calculations of farmers, till date they have already spent Rs 17,500 per acre to resow their paddy. It includes Rs 3000 per acre they have spent on the purchase of paddy nursery from Jind, Fatehabad and other districts of Punjab and Haryana after the floods. Apart from it, Rs 1,000 were charged by labour to pluck the paddy nursery while around Rs 3,000 were charged for transportation.

“Soon a delegation of flood-affected farmers with evidence will meet the CS and CM in Chandigarh to expose the wrongdoings of officers. If the CS and CM fail to give justice, we will launch an indefinite protest as officers here are giving financial aid to a select few and not to all. I have a list of farmers who have lost their crop completely and have not received any financial aid so far,” said Rinku Moonak, general secretary of Moonak block of BKU Ugrahan.

But Moonak SDM Suba Singh said that they had distributed Rs 11 crore of the total Rs 20 crore among 16 flood-affected villages of the total 30.