Punjab Govt to let farmers sell sand left by receding floodwaters

The Punjab Government will allow flood-hit farmers to sell sand deposited by gushing floodwaters in their fields.

A decision approving changes in the state’s mining policy will be taken up in a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

This was stated by senior AAP leader and the party’s Punjab affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia during a press conference here this afternoon.

The announcement has come amid fears that the deposit of sand and silt brought by the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej have rendered lakhs of acres uncultivable, a blow to farmers who are already reeling under heavy losses due to the floods. Moreover, the Cabinet meeting will be held a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the state to take stock of the damage caused by floods.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who is currently admitted to a Mohali hospital due to a bacterial infection, will join the Cabinet meeting through videoconferencing.

A statement released by the hospital said Mann was recovering well and his vitals were normal. Sisodia, who met the CM on Saturday, said, “Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann discussed the issue of the unprecedented silt and sand deposition in the fields.”

“Farmers have not just lost the standing kharif crop, the deposit of excess sand will also make it impossible for them to grow the next crop,” he said.

According to estimates, paddy, cotton, maize, sugarcane and other kharif crops on around 4.30 lakh acres have been damaged in the floods.

Sisodia said when he visited flood-affected villages of Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur, he was told by farmers that the sand, if not removed, would cause them more financial losses.

“The Chief Minister too received a similar feedback. He has expressed his wish to immediately change the policy and allow farmers to extract this sand from their fields and sell it,” said Sisodia.