Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced a package of Rs 600 crore for affected cotton farmers in the state.
After facing criticism for paying meagre compensation to cotton growers, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced a package of Rs 600 crore to be disbursed amongst farmers whose crops were damaged by Whitefly attack in the state.
He had asked officers yesterday to start disbursing the Rs 600 crore.
"We are firmly behind the hard working and resilient farmers of the state to help them in this hour of crisis" added Badal.
Whitefly has caused extensive damage to crop in Punjab with 1.36 lakh hectares of area out of 4.50 lakh hectares being affected by pest attack in the state. Farmers have uprooted the totally damaged crop from 11,780 acres area in Muktsar, Fazilka, Bathinda, Mansa, Faridkot and Barnala districts of the state.
The Chief Minister said that it was on record that whenever our farmers had faced any sort of problem, the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance government has come to their rescue.
The government provided free power to farmers worth Rs 28,000 crore on account of tube-well bills in the past. Similarly, the government had bought all grains from the market despite the wheat crop being damaged due to untimely rains in April, said the SAD leader.
Mr Badal said that the state government took every step to resolve the impending sugarcane crisis by ensuring the payment of arrears to the farmers from private and cooperative sugar mills.