Chandigarh: In the middle of a nationwide concern over farmer suicides, the agriculture minister of Haryana, OP Dhankar, has been accused of displaying egregious insensitivity with his comment that “farmers who commit suicide are cowards and criminals.”
Dhankar, who earlier headed the Bharatiya Janata Party Kisan Cell, used to condemn the earlier UPA government for not doing much for farmers which was leading to increasing suicides. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Monday, announced compensation of Rs 1,092 crore to farmers affected by inclement weather conditions, to be disbursed by May 15.
Noting the huge crop loss due to adverse weather conditions, he said the government has decided on compensation of Rs. 1,092 crore to be disbursed by May 15. Of the total amount, Rs. 720 crore will be provided by the Centre while rest will be provided by the State government, he said.
The Chief Minister slammed the previous Congress-led State government for “unwarranted delay” and paying “paltry” sum of compensation to farmers for their damaged crops. How insensitive the previous state government was to farmers’ problems could be gauged from the amount of compensation paid as it was not the first time natural calamity wrecked havoc in the state,” he said.
Bureau Report
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