Pawar agrees with Cong MPs for direct relief payment to farmers

by Punjabnewswire4u (Balbir)

CHANDIGARH, AUG 10

 The Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and the Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Ramesh have agreed to the suggestion made by the Punjab Congress MPs that the relief to the drought hit farmers in the state should be paid directly to them.

A delegation of the Punjab MPs comprising of the National Spokesperson and Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari, Gurdaspur MP Partap Singh Bajwa, Sangrur MP Vijay Inder Singla and Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Bittu met the two ministers here last night demanding the relief for the farmers and its direct payment to them.

Giving details of the meeting Manish Tewari said, the state government has sought the drought relief under three different heads; one for compensation for electricity to be given to the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd and second and third for the farmers on account of diesel and conversion to submersible motors.

He said, the MPs, while strongly supporting the demand for drought package for Punjab, said, while they had no objection to the relief for electricity subsidy going to the state government, they insisted on the other two parts to be given directly to the farmers as the past experience about disbursement of relief was not encouraging.

The Ludhiana MP said, both the ministers agreed to their suggestion saying the farmers should directly get the relief compensation as they were briefed about as how the state government diverted the relief meant for farmers in 2009 for other purposes.

Now, according to Tewari, the agricultural ministry will seek the details of the drought hit farmers along with their bank account and Kisan Credit Card details so that the relief amount can directly be credited to their account as and when the central government announces the relief package.