Four months on, farmers tilling land across fence still await compensation

Tribune News Service

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, April 20

Hundreds of farmers tilling agricultural land beyond the border fence with Pakistan are waiting for their ‘inconvenience allowance’ of Rs 10,000 per acre for the past four months due to the apathy of Revenue Department officials.

Though the government had released the grant, which pertains to year 2022-23, nearly fourth months ago, it is lying in the banks and has not been disbursed to them.

Baba Arjan Singh, a farmer leader, said, “The government had released the grant for the year 2022 but even after a lapse of four months, the money has not reached the beneficiaries. It has become a norm as every year we have to organise protests to get the money.”

The barbed fence alongside the border was installed in the year 1988. As it was installed on the Indian side of the LAC, thousands of acres of land was left on other side of the fence.

In 1998, the Kapoor Committee constituted by the government had stated that farmers tilling agricultural land on the other side of the fence suffered losses due to various reasons like their crops are damaged by wild animals; they get lesser working hours; and they have to face other restrictions imposed by the BSF.

Later, the government had decided to give an ‘inconvenience allowance’ to the farmers. Though initially the allowance was meagre, it was revised to Rs 10,000 per acre a few years ago.

“Every year there is a delay in getting the funds as the local Revenue Department officials do not complete their paperwork on time,” said Rattan Singh Randhawa of the Border Area Sangharsh Committee.

He said at present, the money released by the government is lying in bank accounts of the farmers. “All that needs to be done is that the Revenue Department has to tell bank officials about the account details of the beneficiaries and how much amount is to be transferred,” said Randhawa, adding that initially they had to fight with the government to get the compensation and now they have to fight with government babus to get money transferred into their accounts.

Farmers from the district till nearly 5,000 acres of land across the fence for which they have to get permission from the BSF and go through security checks every time they have to go to their fields. The farmers are not allowed to visit their fields in the night or early in the morning or in the evening.

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