Even as the Uttar Pradesh government has flatly denied suicides by farmers in any part of the state, state chief secretary Alok Ranjan on Tuesday admitted that the untimely rain, thunder and hailstorm in large parts of the state had caused tremendous loss to the standing wheat crop to the tune of over Rs 1,100 crores.
Almost simultaneously, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced an immediate ex-gratia relief of Rs 300 crores to be paid as compensation to the five lakh affected farmers.
Meanwhile, one more death of farmer was reported from Barabanki and another from Greater Noida on Tuesday morning, taking the toll to 36.
“Directives have been sent to district magistrates of each of the affected 44 districts to ensure prompt disbursement of relief to the victim farmers,” Ranjan said.
When his attention was drawn to repeated reports about farmers’ deaths from different corners of the state, he said, “Well, there is no denying about farmers dying in different areas, but not a single death is attributable to suicide.”
“We have checked and cross-checked, the reported deaths have occurred either on account of illness, old age of house-collapse. Nobody has committed suicide,” he added.
He however emphasised, “Yet, we are providing an ex-gratia relief of Rs 7 lakhs to every family in which the head of the family has died on account of the freak rain and thunderstorm.”
“As against the central government’s grant of Rs 1.5 lakhs, the state government has added a sum of Rs. 3.5 lakhs, whilie the chief minister has pumped in an additional Rs 2 lakhs out of his discretionary fund to make it an Rs 7 lakh compensation package,” he stated.
According to the chief secretary, the initially calculated loss to crop on account of the first round of rain was about Rs 774 crores. However, a revised estimate carried out, after the sudden spell of hail and thunderstorm that followed, took the losses to over Rs 1,100 crores.
Not convinced by the official claims, opposition parties were busy flying the Samajwadi Party government for what they termed as “concealment” of suicides by farmers.
Meanwhile, the Union government has sent a panel of ministers led by surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari to carry out an on the spot assessment of losses.
Besides Gadkari, minister of state for water resources Ram Kripal Singh and minister of state for home Haribhai Chaudhary reached Agra on Tuesday to visit the village Aruakhaas in Acchnera area, described as one of the worst affected.
Taking a dig at the Samajwadi Party government, Gadkari observed, “The crises faced by farmers appear to be both ‘aasmani’ (from providence) as well as ‘sultani’ (caused by the ruler). However, I would like to assure the farmers that they are not alone at this time of crises and that the Union government led by Narendra Modi was fully with them.”
The minister also sought to advise the Akhilesh government not to discriminate between farmers on basis of their background or party, while providing relief to the farmers.
He urged the district administration to speed up the assessment of losses suffered by farmers.
“The state government should further facilitate farmers by relaxing terms of payment of electricity dues and repayment of bank loans,” he emphasised.
He however avoided any debate on alleged suicides by farmers.
Local Bharatiya Janata Party leaders took exception to the fact that the district magistrate and other senior officials chose to stay away from Gadkari’s visit.
