Declare farm distress national disaster: Cong

New Delhi, April 9

The Congress today demanded that the ongoing farm distress be declared a national disaster and adequate one-time compensation be given to affected farmers rather than a mere change of norms in compensation guidelines.

Congress senior spokesperson CP Joshi today said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s package for farmers was a misleading offer as the ground result of that package would benefit none of those affected.

“The estimated loss to an average farmer affected by recent rains has been Rs 20,000 per acre but the government has announced a relief of just Rs 6,800 per hectare for rain fed areas. This translates into Rs 2,750 per acre which is nothing compared to actual loss. Also relief for damaged crops has been restricted to a maximum of two to five acres.

This will deny the benefit of compensation to over half of the cultivated crop area which falls in the category uncovered by the relief guidelines,” Joshi said. — TNS