Punjab demands Rs 300 cr aid
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 20 — The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, today said the unseasonal rains in the state had caused losses worth Rs 1,000 crore to the farm sector and demanded a Central assistance of Rs 300 crore to provide relief to paddy and cotton growers in the state.

The demand was raised at a meeting the Punjab Chief Minister held with the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, at his 7, Race Course official residence. The meeting was called by the Prime Minister after Mr Badal sent him an SOS on Saturday seeking the Centre’s help in overcoming the unprecedented crisis faced by the State, particularly due to three-days of continuous rains during the past one week.

Mr Badal emphasised at the meeting that the failure of the Government to compensate the farmers adequately for the huge losses suffered by them would lead to a food crisis in the country.

"We cannot afford to dishearten the farmers of Punjab and failure to help them at this stage will have serious repercussions for the country", the Chief Minister told mediapersons after the conclusion of his one-and-a-half hours meeting with the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister assured Mr Badal that the Centre would take a decision on the quantum of relief to the state in a day or two.

Briefing the Prime Minister on the crisis in the farm sector, Mr Badal said inclement weather and continuous rains throughout the State since October 15 had damaged the harvested and standing paddy crop. The quality of paddy had also deteriorated and it was not up to the specifications laid down by the Union Food Ministry for procurement agencies. Mr Badal demanded that the specifications for grains be relaxed as was done last year.

Mr Badal said despite the best efforts of the state and central agencies, unsold and unprocured paddy of around 40 lakh tonnes was bound to be damaged. Since a large quantity of paddy did not meet the specifications laid down by the government, the procurement agencies and rice millers would not purchase the same.

In such a scenario, if the farmers of Punjab were left to the mercy of the market forces, they would lose crore of rupees on their produce.

The Chief Minister informed Mr Vajpayee that last year too a similar situation had arisen and the Centre had come to the rescue of the farmers by granting relaxations in the specifications for rice and paddy.

Against the present tolerance limit of 22 per cent for broken Grade A rice and 24 per cent for common rice, the Government during 1997-98 had relaxed it to 30 per cent. For raw and par-boiled rice, the specifications last year were 4.5 instead of 2 per cent and 4 per cent respectively for the two varieties.

For raw rice discolouration, the tolerance limit laid down this year was 3 per cent while the previous government had allowed up to 13 per cent discolouration. For par-boiled rice, the discolouration specification laid down for this year was 5 per cent while in the previous year it was 13 per cent. Similarly, driage allowed for raw rice this year was two per cent as against 3.5 per cent allowed last year.

Mr Badal demanded that the specifications for various varieties of paddy and rice be allowed as per the levels announced last year. In some cases, the Chief Minister said procurement of stocks damaged even beyond relaxed specifications should be allowed.

The Punjab Chief Minister said about 50 per cent of the crop had already reached mandis and large quantities of it had been sold by farmers much below the minimum support price. The difference of price should be made up by the Centre, Mr Badal demanded.

He said as against the estimated arrival of 22 lakh bales of cotton in the market, only seven lakh bales had arrived this year. The government should take measures to compensate for the huge loss, he said.

The Chief Minister said Punjab required special relief as it contributed 40 per cent of rice, 60 per cent of wheat and 22 per cent of cotton to the national pool.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by the Union Food Minister, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, the Managing Director of the Food Corporation of India, Mr S.S.Dawra, and a Joint Secretary in the Food Ministry, Mr K.M.Sahni.

Apart from the Chief Minister, the Punjab Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, the Punjab Food and Supplies Minister, Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, the Secretary Food and Supplies, Mr P. Ram, the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Mr Ramesh Inder Singh, and the Director, Food and Supplies, Mr A.S.Chhatwal, represented the Punjab Government.