Chandigarh: Highlighting Punjab’s plight due to one of the worst flood disasters in decades, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to release Rs 60,000 crore of the “state’s funds”, which he claimed are “stuck” with the Centre.
Mann also sought revision in the norms for funds available in the State Disaster Response Fund(SDRF), saying that his government wanted to pay at least Rs 50,000 per acre to affected farmers.
Punjab is under the grip of massive floods, caused by the swollen Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers and seasonal rivulets due to heavy rain in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
In the letter to PM Modi, Mann stated that Punjab was currently grappling with one of the worst flood disasters in decades, impacting about 1,000 villages and lakhs of people.
“Heavy monsoon rains, coupled with the release of waters from dams, have caused extensive flooding in seven districts, namely Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Amritsar, Pathankot, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Hoshiarpur.
“With the situation still evolving, there is a grave concern that conditions may further deteriorate in the coming days,” wrote Mann.
He said at present, about three lakh acres of farmland, primarily paddy fields, remain submerged under floodwater, leading to devastating crop losses just weeks before harvest.
“In addition, there has been a widespread loss of livestock, which is severely impacting rural households whose livelihoods are heavily dependent on dairy and animal husbandry,” he said.
Mann claimed that Rs 60,000 of the state’s funds are pending with the Centre and should be released.
Giving details, Mann said an estimated permanent loss of revenue on account of implementation of goods and services tax (GST) and transition from VAT regime is Rs 49,727 crore, for which “no compensation has been provided by the government of India”.
“Loss on account of reduction of RDF (rural development fund) and MDF (mandi development fund) in the last few years has ballooned to over Rs 8,000 crore.”
Mann also pointed out that the Centre scrapped the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) projects in Punjab recently, amounting to Rs 828 crore. “This can adversely impact the state’s rural connectivity in the long run,” he wrote.
“Punjab is facing a tough time due to the worst flood conditions. You are requested to release all funds of Punjab stuck with the Government of India, which is to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore,” he said.
Mann said that while substantial funds are available in the State Disaster Response Fund(SDRF), the existing norms prescribed under the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs remain grossly inadequate to compensate farmers, livestock owners and vulnerable communities for the scale of their losses.
The notified norms are “totally unrealistic” as compared to actual losses suffered by the farmers, he claimed.
Citing an example, Mann said the input subsidy, where crop loss is 33 per cent and above, has been fixed as Rs 17,000 per hectare. This translates into Rs 6,800 per acre. Paying such a petty amount would be a cruel joke with the farmers, he said.
So the state government contributes an additional Rs 8,200 per acre and pays Rs 15,000 per acre to farmers.
“Since the crops were almost at the harvesting stage, I feel that at least Rs 50,000 per acre should be paid to the farmers. So I request you to revise the norms of compensation of SDRF. Needless to say the state government shall continue to contribute 25 per cent as per the scheme of SDRF,” wrote Mann.
