Kamal Nath demands ₹7,500 per farmer as interim relief

State government has so far exempted machines used in harvesting, including threshers and harvesters, from the lockdown.

March 26, 2020 08:21 pm | Updated 08:24 pm IST - Bhopal

Kamal Nath

Kamal Nath

Former chief minister Kamal Nath appealed to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to extend a monthly relief of at least ₹7,500 to each farmer for the next two months in view of the lockdown imposed to contain the COVID-19 threat .

Stating that rabi crop harvest and sale had already begun, Mr. Nath wrote to Mr. Chouhan: “Several crops like wheat, peas, coriander, mustard and gram etc are in the state of harvest but due to the lockdown the harvest is not being possible and a possibility of the crop damage is created.”

Also read: Coronavirus | Why 21-day lockdown period?

In addition, he said, farmers who had already harvested crops were facing storage issues. “In many districts, harvested vegetables are kept in fields and are reaching the stage of getting damaged, as there are no arrangements for transport or sale of vegetables owing to the lockdown,” he added.

The situation was no different in the case of fruits, he pointed out. “For instance, if orange is not plucked in time, it will start rotting after a period. The situation has further worsened owing to untimely rain.”

Mr. Nath said, “To give relief to farmers, it is important that the State government makes arrangements for the harvest, plucking, storage, transport and sale of vegetables, crops and fruits.”

The State government has so far exempted machines used in harvesting, including threshers and harvesters, from the lockdown. Besides, it has promised farmers that arrangements will be made for the purchase of wheat.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.