New Delhi, September 30 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday called Union Home Minister Amit Shah and sought a special package for the state in view of the damage caused by unprecedented floods.
The Chief Minister informed the Union Minister Shah that the relief of Rs 1,600 crore declared by the Center government was Miniskul in view of the serious loss by the state.
He demanded amendment in criteria from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) or National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to give compensation to the flood victims.
He informed the Union Home Minister that Punjab has faced its worst floods in decades, affecting more than 2 million people in 2,614 villages, displaced 6.87 lakhs.
Chief Minister Mann said that disaster caused widespread damage as more than 4.8 lakh acres of crops were destroyed, more than 17,000 houses were damaged, more than 2.5 lakh livestock were affected and 4,657 km of rural roads, 485 bridges, 1,417 collide and 190 mandis.
The Chief Minister said that the initial estimate of loss is Rs 13,832 crore, covering agriculture, infrastructure, health, education and livelihood.
He said that the current SDRF and NDRF criteria are more inadequate to address the actual scale of compensation, adding input subsidy where the crop loss is 33 percent and above it has been fixed as Rs 6,800 per acre by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Mann said that it would be unfair for farmers to pay such petty amount as crops were almost in the phase of harvesting.
He said that farmers of the state should be paid Rs 50,000 per acre.
The Chief Minister said that he had already flagged off the issue with the Union Home Ministry, as there was no response, so the state has contributed to the state budget and increased its compensation at its level.
He said that in a healing touch to the flood victims, the state government has decided to increase the loss of Rs 2,000 per acre from Rs 2,000 to 26 to 33 percent crop under SDRF criteria to Rs 10,000, 33 to 75 percent crop loss has increased from Rs 6,800 and has compensated for more than 75 to 100 to 100 to 100 to 100.
The Chief Minister said that in compensation of Rs 20,000 per acre to farmers, the state government will contribute the highest, Rs 14,900 in the country.
He said that compensation for houses and seriously damaged houses completely damaged and destroyed should double Rs 1.20 lakh per house in plain areas.
Similarly, Mann said that compensation for partially damaged houses (in addition to huts) should be Rs 50,000 per house instead of Rs 6,500 per house for Puka houses and for the houses of ‘Kancha’ instead of the houses of Rs 10,000 per house instead of Rs 4,000 per house.
Increasing the issue of rural development fee of Rs 11,297 crore and pending stake of market fees, the Chief Minister said that under Section 7 of the Punjab Rural Development Act, 1987, and according to Section 23 of the Punjab Agricultural Production Marketing Act, 1961, the development fee and market fees are not being reimbursed to the state.
He said that the purpose of this fund is to promote agriculture and rural infrastructure, which eventually adds overall development of agriculture, ie. Rural road network, marketing infrastructure, growth of storage facility, land record computerization, automation and mechanization of mandis and others.
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