the goan I network
PANAJI
The multiple assurances and empathy publicly displayed by politicos and the government last year, have turned out to be mere crocodile tears as around Rs 4.42 crore in compensation due to thousands of farmers whose crops were damaged due to floods in last year’s abnormally heavy monsoon, is yet to be disbursed.
None of the farmers have been paid any compensation even as the floods caused massive damage to their crops last monsoon with nearly 5261 hectares under cultivation officially estimated to be affected due to the flooding.
The agriculture department has assessed that the loss incurred by farmers in 2019 as on December 2019 was 5.47 crore. The Department has disbursed crop loss compensation from own budgetary allocation of a meagre Rs 90 lakh.
Govt paid compensation of around Rs 70.64 lakh to 272 farmers under the Chief Minister Relief Fund during 2019-20 while the remaining amount is yet to be given to the farmers.
In a reply given in the legislative assembly Agriculture Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar had given assurance that “the inspection of the losses incurred due to floods was carried out by the Zonal Agriculture Officers and the compensation to the affected farmers will be paid under
the “Shetkari Adhar Nidhi” Scheme implemented by this Directorate”.
Farmers from Pernem taluka had been affected the most, as crops grown on 598 hectares of land were submerged in flood waters causing a loss of Rs 2.81 crore to around 1,762 farmers in the area. The government had promised to pay part of the compensation to the affected farmers before Ganesh Chaturthi and had said it was looking into the possibility of revising the crop-wise compensation figures.
Assurances were also given that monetary help would be sought from the central government with Minister for State Defence Shripad Naik promising to pursue the matter to get the compensation amount as early as possible.
