BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Saturday decided to give input subsidy to cultivators, instead of owners of agricultural land, for the crop loss due to floods in the State last month. The input subsidy will be given to the farmers from November. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here. Naveen reviewed the progress of post-flood renovation and restoration works and asked the officials to complete them within 45 days. The decision will benefit the ‘real’ farmers who have suffered immense kharif crop loss in the flood. “The village committees will identify the actual cultivators who sustained crop loss,”Revenue and Disaster Management Minister SN Patro told mediapersons after the meeting. While actual farmers suffer crop loss during calamities, the land owners usually get compensation, Patro pointed out and added the Chief Minister this time decided to give input subsidy to the real cultivators. Though the share croppers do not have land documents, they will get benefits, he said. The Chief Minister directed the district collectors to submit the final crop damage report to the State Government by end-October so that the input subsidy could be distributed in November. According to preliminary estimation, two spells of flood caused damage to standing crops in about 4.38 lakh hectare. Naveen also asked officials to distribute 1.1 lakh quintal seeds among farmers for the ensuing rabi. While one lakh quintal groundnut seeds will be provided, seeds of 10,000 quintals of other pulses, including black gram and moong, will also be distributed among the farmers. It was decided that while the restoration work will be completed within time, there will be no compromise on quality. Five committees will function under the guidance of special relief commissioner (SRC) to ensure this. These committees will do random checking of restoration works completed in different flood-affected areas. Meanwhile, BJP’s central team, led by Gopinath Munde, visited several flood-hit areas in Puri district and alleged that both the Centre and the State Government failed to manage floods properly. Governor MC Bhandare also visited flood- affected Gop and Kanas areas of Puri district.
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