Chandigarh, Senior SAD leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday urged the Union agriculture minister to send a special team to Punjab to assess the damage caused to the standing wheat crop by hailstorms.

He urged the Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to release a special compensation package to affected farmers.

On the other hand, Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia demanded immediate compensation of ₹50,000 per acre from the state government.

Bathinda MP Harsimrat, who wrote to the Union Agriculture minister, also appealed to him to issue directions to defer interest on loans taken by affected farmers from cooperative societies for one year, besides issuing fertilisers to these farmers on concessional rates.

"This will go a long way in helping the affected farmers to stand back on their feet", she asserted.

Giving details, Harsimrat said a large part of Punjab was hit by unseasonal rain, hailstorms and gusty winds three days back.

She said this led to flattening of wheat crops over several thousand acres and even damaged the kernels, making the crop unfit for harvesting.

She asserted that the hailstorm, which struck parts of Bathinda, Mansa, Fazilka, Moga and Sri Muktsar Sahib in the Malwa region, also struck parts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur and Fatehgarh Sahib.

"Besides destroying the wheat crop over vast tracts of land, the hailstorm has also damaged the maize crop at various places", said the former union minister.

Calling for help from the Centre, the MP said the farmers of the state were in utter despair as they had been "abandoned" by the Aam Aadmi Party government.

She said the A government had not conducted any surveys to assess the damage caused to the wheat crop, nor announced any compensation or given any to the farmers.

Akali leader Majithia said the hailstorm has "broken the backbone of farmers, but not the sleep of the government," alleging a lack of urgency in providing relief.

Source - https://www.hindustantimes.com