Yamunanagar, May 4
Sunil Kumar of Bhamnauli village of Haryana has been given Rs 8 as compensation for the paddy crop that was damaged in a hailstorm in October last year.

After having lost his crop to the vagaries of nature, Sunil Kumar is not the only one who got the double blow. In fact, the amount being provided as compensation by the Haryana government is so low that most of the farmers have refused to collect it.

While three residents of Udhamgarh village — Karnail Singh, Om Parkash, Kehar Singh and Meha Singh — got Rs 9 each as compensation, Gurdiyal Singh got Rs 23 and Labh Singh, Harphool Singh, Hakam Singh, Satish and Anil Kumar, all residents of Sandhya village of Bilaspur block, received Rs 47 each.

Shakuntla Devi and Vimla Devi of the same village were given Rs 23, while Santosh Kumari, Bachint Singh, Ram Nath, Tirlok Nath were rich by a paltry Rs 16 each.

The government had sanctioned Rs 1,82,481 for 227 farmers of three villages of the block. In this distribution process, a significant number of affected farmers were to get anything between Rs 8 and Rs 500 only. And this came after teams comprising officials of agriculture and revenue departments spent several days in the fields to assess the damage.

Simply put, the figures reflect government apathy.

When the compensations to those whose kharif crop was damaged in October last were being distributed, many of the affected farmers had hoped for some sort of financial recourse. However, the truth was stark and bitter.

Moreover, since the compensation is as per the government rules, no official is ready to quote on the matter. Haryana ministers of revenue or agriculture were not available for comments. However, what most of them do admit, albeit on condition of anonymity, is that the ‘less-than-nominal’ compensation is nothing but a crude joke at the farmers’ expense.

Officials also said instead of giving such miserable compensation, the government ought not to give it at all. Requesting anonymity, an official said a farmer is not benefited in any way if the compensation is less Rs 5,000.

The compensation rates for this year were increased. The earlier compensation rates for paddy were Rs 1,250 for damages between 25-50 per cent, Rs 1,875 for damages between 50-75 per cent and Rs 2,500 for damages above 75 per cent per acre.

It is pertinent to mention that compensation for damages to rabi crop in February-March due to hailstorm in the district is ready for distribution. In this case too, a significant number of farmers would be getting less than Rs 1,000, a senior official said.