Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday announced that in the future farmers incurring any loss from a natural disaster would be duly compensated prior to completion of assessment (Girdawari).
Addressing a gathering at Mansa during a function organised to distribute compensation to farmers who have lost their crop due to Pink worm attack, the Chief Minister said that it is unfortunate that food growers get the compensation after a long and troublesome process of assessment of crop loss. He said that this will be reversed and now farmers will get compensation prior to assessment as already being done in Delhi. Mann said that this will be instrumental in saving the undue harassment of farmers for getting compensation after a cumbersome process.
The CM said that in Malwa belt farmers had lost their cotton crop not because of attack by the white and pink worm, but it was the supply of poor-quality seeds and pesticides that was chiefly responsible for this huge loss. He announced that a thorough inquiry will be conducted in this regard and strict action will be taken against those who had supplied these spurious seeds and pesticides to farmers. Mann categorically said that the real culprits for the loss of farmers were not the attack of white or pink worms but it was the then government which supplied poor seeds and pesticides to farmers.
Promising to make agriculture a profitable venture, the Chief Minister said that the state government is holding parleys with the experts of various universities so as to introduce new technology for motivating the farmers to cultivate high profit yielding varieties of crops. He said that agriculture is the backbone of Punjab's economy and the state government will leave no stone unturned to make it a profit-making occupation.
Highlighting the importance of water, the Chief Minister said that it is the only available natural resource of the state. He bemoaned that for producing one kilogram of rice 3800 liters water of state is wasted.