Cong slams Raj govt; asks for compensation, power for farmers

Jaipur, Feb 7 (UNI) The Congress today criticised the Rajasthan government for its alleged failure in granting compensation to farmers of the state for extensive Rabi crop damage suffered by them due to a prolonged cold spell.

Talking to newspersons here, former minister and senior Congress leader Chandra Bhan said over 50 per cent of the crop of mustard, vegetables in 22 of the 33 districts of the state worth over Rs 1000 crore, had been damaged due to cold wave and ground frost coupled with inadequate power supply.

Mr Bhan said the Congress had been demanding immediate survey for assessment of the crop damage but the state government had shown total apathy to the demand.

He said the prevailing power crisis, which had led to prolonged power cuts in rural and urban areas, had further worsened the situation as in the want of power supply farmers could not irrigate the crop properly to save it from frost.

He said against the declared power supply of eight hours a day, farmers were just getting about five hours supply where as rural domestic consumers were getting only three to four hour power supply every day.

Besides due compensation for crop loss, the party was also pressing the government to ensure more power for enabling the farmers to save the remaining crop.

''The party would hold demonstrations in all the districts to press the demands,'' he added.

UNI SS SK GC1759