Ahmedabad: Gujarat high court has sought the state government’s reply by Friday to a PIL complaining about farmers from Banaskantha district not receiving compensation for damage they suffered due to the heavy floods last August.
The court asked the concerned government lawyer to get instructions from the authorities about what should be done for the farmers who could not apply for compensation within the time frame stipulated. This comes one day after the state government admitted in the assembly that the Centre had not given its promised flood relief of Rs 2,000 crore.
According to petitioners’ advocate, Niyati Shah, the state government announced flood relief through a circular on August 10, 2017 for damage to crops and soil erosion during floods in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat. The state government did not mention a time limit for farmers to apply for compensation. On September 22, 2017, the state government wrote a letter to district development officers telling them that September 30 was the deadline fixed for farmers to file applications for compensation and they shouldn’t consider applications filed after that.
More than 200 farmers had failed to file applications by the deadline and upon rejection made representations before various authorities. However, the government did not extend the deadline.
The farmers finally moved the high court demanding that their requests for compensation for flood damage should be considered, particularly because the state government did not widely publicize the deadline. They urged the HC to direct the government to accept their applications and grant compensation for damage they suffered in the floods.
After a preliminary hearing, the high court made an oral observation that there should be a window for such farmers to file applications so their requests can be considered.
