Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday sought a financial assistance of `4,050 crores from the Central government to compensate the farmers in view of drought like conditions prevailing in the state.
The chief minister said that he had made this demand during his meeting with Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, who were here to review the drought situation in Haryana. Mr Hooda said both of them assured him to consider the demand of the state.
Mr Hooda said that during the meeting, Mr Jairam Ramesh announced to give Haryana `230 crores for drinking water purposes and watershed management and apart from this he announced to give an additional budget of 30 per cent under MNREGA.
Mr Hooda said that deficiency of rainfall in Haryana is severest in the country and the situation of deficit rainfall is worst in this year as compared to last 10 years.
Meanwhile, a delegation led by Mr Pawar on a tour to assess the drought-like situation in Punjab agreed in principle that there was a dire need to come to the aid of farmers and the government in Punjab in the wake unprecedented failure of monsoon in the region.
The package demanded by Punjab includes `2,531 crores for purchase and arrangement of additional power, `850.80 crores to compensate for additional cost incurred by the farmers on of high speed diesel and other expenses.