Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said instead of requesting the Centre for compensating the farmers for crop loss due to unseasonal rains, the state government will bear the entire expense of the burden being faced by the farmers due to the cut being imposed by the Union government on damaged wheat grain.
“We are not going to request the Centre to not impose the cut but we will extract compensation for the interests of farmers when Centre will seek supply of grains in terms of wheat and paddy for the national food pool”, said the CM while addressing the gathering at Nihalgarh (Sangrur).
He said farmers have suffered huge losses due to incessant rains but the Central government has not done anything to bail them out. Rather, he said that to rub salt into the wounds of farmers, the Centre has imposed a cut on the damaged, slightly damaged, shriveled and broken grains along with those having high moisture content.
Mann said the limit of shriveled and broken grains has been relaxed up to 18 per cent under uniform specifications. He said the value cut is not applicable on wheat having shriveled and broken grains up to six per cent whereas value cut of Rs 5.31 per quintal will be deducted on wheat having shriveled and broken grains above six per cent and up to eight per cent.
Urging the farmers not to worry, the CM said the state government is competent to secure the rights of the farmers and they will not beg the Centre to help the food growers. However, he said that instead of bailing the farmers in this hour of crisis, the Centre has decided to impose a cut on damaged, slightly damaged, shriveled and broken grains.
Mann said the state is solidly with the farmers in this grave situation and the Punjab government will bear the entire expenditure for the loss being suffered by the farmers due to cut by the Centre.
The CM said the state government has announced 25 per cent upward revision in the compensation for the crop loss to the farmers. He said that in case the loss is more than 75 per cent then the state government will compensate the farmers with Rs 15,000 per acre.