Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Union Home Minister Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde to immediately modify the relief norms for enhancement of compensation out of the State Disaster Response Fund in case of 100% loss to crops in wake of recent floods. He demanded at least Rs. 20,000 per acre as compensation to the farmers in case of complete loss of crops to bail out the beleaguered peasantry in this hour of crisis.
Mr. Badal called on the Union Home Minister here in his office this evening and made a similar request in case of damage to houses, as well as loss of milch animals. He apprised Mr. Shinde that presently, the maximum amount of relief in case of complete damage to a house was Rs. 70,000 and impressed upon him to increase this limit to Rs. 1.25 lac, with corresponding enhancement in case of partial damage etc.
The Chief Minister informed Mr. Shinde that the current guidelines similarly stipulated that relief would be admissible only for the loss of one large milch animal even through many such animals might have been lost. The amount of relief was quite inadequate in any case and to restrict it to one animal caused avoidable hardship to the affected persons. Therefore, the Chief Minister requested Mr. Shinde to get these norms modified instantly to provide meaningful relief in such cases.
Referring to another issue for the construction of three new jails at Amritsar, Bathinda and Sri Mukatsar Sahib, the Chief Minister also requested Mr. Shinde to immediately sanction Rs. 300 crore for this purpose.The Chief Minister also flagged the issue to pay compensation to the farmers before Mr. Shinde in the meeting, whose land fell across the fence along with International Border and were facing numerous hardships. He informed Mr. Shinde that these farmers were being paid compensation for same till 2003, but after that no compensation had been paid to them by the Home Ministry. Adding Mr. Badal said not only these farmers needed financial support in form of compensation, but their wards should be considered sympathetically for employment, in Security forces.
The Chief Minister also pointed out that the Border fence was erected during the time when militancy was at its peak in Punjab. For a large stretch, it was not aligned at a distance of 150 metres from the International Border (IB).At certain places, in Ferozepur district, the border fence was almost 3.5kms from the border. This deep alignment was to the detriment of the farmers, whose land was across the fence. It also afforded an opportunity to anti-national elements to utilize services of farmers for their nefarious designs. Work on forward shifting of the fence had been started in the Fazilka sector and this work needed to be expedited and extended all along the border.It may be recalled that Punjab has 554 Kms of International border, along which two major rivers, namely, Ravi and Satluj cross over to Pakistan. Due to meandering course of these rivers, border fencing was not possible along 17 kms of this border. For this area, BSF requires additional resources in form of boats and other infrastructure so that these areas were not exploited by anti-national elements to enter the State.
The Chief Minister also brought into the notice of Mr. Shinde that during the winter months, thick cover of fog which enveloped this region provides a cover to smugglers and anti-national elements to sneak across the border. BSF has been provided with Hand Held Thermal Detectors (HHTD), which could detect movement of human body, in these conditions. The number of HHTD available with BSF is not adequate to cover whole of the border. Their number needed to be doubled considering that riverine areas remain enveloped in fog, for large number of days, during winter months.Patrol road, used by BSF vehicles, for patrolling along the fence, is kuchha and therefore unviable for use during the monsoon months. If this narrow patrol road all along the fence was cemented, the patrolling could be strengthened to prevent smuggling of narcotics, which were thrown over the fence added Mr. Badal.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister also handed over a cheque of Rs. Rs. 5,07,72,313/- (Rupees Five Crore, seven lac, seventy two thousand, three hundred and thirteen) only to Mr. Shinde towards Prime Minister's relief fund for Uttrakhand victims.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Principal Secretary Mr. S.K. Sandhu.