Punjab doles out bonus to paddy farmers, will claim it from Centre

Earlier, lashing out at the Chief Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and UP for not doing enough to prevent crop residue burning, which has contributed to Delhi’s pollution crisis, the Supreme Court on November 6 had asked the three states to pay Rs 100 per quintal of crop – within seven days – as incentive to paddy farmers who have not burnt stubble on their fields.

The government has decided to give Rs 2,500 per acre as compensation to farmers for managing the stubble in environment friendly manner. Agriculture Secretary Kahan Singh Pannu said the compensation has been released directly to the bank accounts of the farmers as per the list supplied by the field officers.

The government had decided to provide an amount of Rs 2500 per acre to the farmers for managing stubble without fire.

As many as 85,000 applications have been received till now, Pannu said, adding the last date for submission of these applications is November 30.

“Every application has to be verified by village panchayat and then by revenue authorities to ensure that only the non-basmati cultivating farming families owning land up to 5 acres and having not burnt any part of the field, are recommended for compensation,” he said.

Pannu warned that any sarpanch or revenue officer wrongly recommending any applicant would face stern action. He also cautioned that farmers giving wrong undertaking to seek compensation would also face action for fraudulently claiming the public money.

Meanwhile, a senior official, requesting anonymity said that they were yet to reach a concrete figure that would be spent in compensating the farmers. “But as per rough estimates, it should be about Rs 500 crore. As per the estimates, we would have to pay Rs 212 crore to the 85,000 applicants who have sought compensation. It is likely that number of such applicants would increase, meaning the government will have to shell out more money,” the official said.

The official further said that the state government will ask the Centre to reimburse the amount. “Why should we pay this money when our farmers are growing paddy for the central pool using our precious resources. The MSP is not enough for the farmers to dispose of the paddy stubble in an environment friendly way. They have been demanding bonus. It should be Centre’s responsibility,” the official added.

The state plans to add the the money spent on compensation into the Cash Credit Limit (CCL) account. The CCL is given as an advance to the state for procurement of MSP crops. After the procurement, the accounts are settled with the Centre. The Centre has advanced an amount of Rs 26,707 crore to Punjab for procurement of paddy.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had twice written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal for the farmers. The Centre, however, never responded.