Compensation for crop damage to be paid: Min

BHUBANESWAR: Unseasonal rains in December damaged crops in more than 10,000 hectares in Puri, Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur districts. Announcing this, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Maheswar Mohanty said compensation will be disbursed among the affected farmers within a month. Collectors of five districts on Thursday submitted reports on crop damage due to unseasonal rains. Collector of Cuttack and Kendrapara have reported that there was no crop damage in their districts on account of unseasonal rains.

The five districts had received significant rainfall on December 9 and 10 due to a depression over the Bay of Bengal. Earlier, crops in 3.84 lakh hectares in 135 blocks spread across 19 districts were affected by unseasonal rain in third week of November.Farmers who sustained crop loss of 33 per cent and above due to the calamity are eligible to get agricultural input subsidy as per the norms of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), the Minister said.