Punjab to Centre: Revise guidelines on drought

CHANDIGARH: Punjab has demanded the Centre to revise the guidelines for declaring Punjab a drought-hit state and pay compensation to farmers and the government to cope up with the crisis.
In order to prepare an assessment of the extent of damage caused to the crops, the Punjab government proposes to undertake special girdawari from August 10 to August 25.The state government made a plea to the central team to treat Punjab as a special case, for the damage to the crops might not be very extensive, but the additional burden on farmers to save their crop needed to be taken into account.
The team led by Dr Joginder Singh, additional commissioner, union agriculture ministry, concluded its two-day visit to the worst-hit areas in Sangrur, Mansa and Ludhiana districts on Wednesday.
According to the Central guidelines, unless there was 50 per cent loss to the crop, the state could not be declared drought-hit, whereas Punjab has suggested that deficiency of rainfall be made the criterion.
By that yardstick, Punjab would qualify to be categorised as a drought-hit state, for it has experienced 81 per cent less average rainfall in July. As compared to 180 mm average rainfall in each district during July, this year it recorded merely 34 mm with some of the districts registering even nil rainfall this month.
Principal secretary, development, P K Verma said that paddy crop on about 2.5 lakh hectares of land was expected to have been either damaged or could not be sown due to drought-like conditions. He said the memorandum to be presented to the Centre regarding the loss suffered by the state would be prepared in August.
According to a conservative estimate, it could touch Rs 4,000 crore, including the exorbitant rates at which power was being purchased for the paddy growers. The agriculture department officials said farmers in certain areas had to spend up to Rs 5,000 per acre as an additional cost to save their crop.
Meanwhile, chief minister Amarinder Singh has announced to sanction Rs five crore as calamity relief fund to ensure drinking water supply in all parts of the state. Special tankers would be put into service to supply drinking water in far-flung pockets in Mansa, Bathinda and Faridkot districts.
The CM has also directed that control rooms be set up at tehsil levels where the SDMs would be monitoring the drought situation and take remedial measures. A state-level monitoring cell has been also constituted under director, agriculture, to monitor the crop situation at the macro level and collect details of rainfall in the state.
CENTRAL TEAM VISITS MANSA To take stock of drought-like condition in Punjab, a three-member Central team of the agriculture department reached Mansa district on Tuesday.
The team is being headed by Dr Joginder Singh, additional agriculture commissioner. Its members, Rajbir Singh, assistant commissioner, agriculture department, and GK Chaudhary, director (wheat), Central government, visited about one dozen villages of Mansa on Tuesday evening.
The members while inspecting paddy crops at Sardulewala, Jatana Kalan, Oolak, Jherianwali, Banawala and other villages spoke to farmers and agriculture department officials about the expenditure on the crop and availability of the water for irrigation.
The farmers were spending Rs 3,000 per hectare extra on diesel to run pump sets. Consequently, the expenditure had increased from Rs 7,000 per hectare to Rs 10,000 per hectare this season.
The officials and farmers told the team that the drought had led to ground water plummeting 10 feet to 12 feet in the area which had affected about 70 per cent tubewells in Mansa, said Mansa chief agriculture officer Bikar Singh.
Though the ground water was not fit for irrigation due to high fluoride content, the farmers were spending above Rs 50,000 on tube well bores.