Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar conducted a review meeting with concerned officials and directed them to provide compensation to farmers whose crops were affected by the hailstorm that hit different parts of Bihar between March 17 and 21.
“The chief minister had asked the officials to conduct an extensive survey to assess the damage to the Rabi crop caused by the hailstorm. He has now asked them to provide compensation directly into the bank accounts of the affected farmers,” a statement issued by Nitish’s office said.
Nitish, during the review meeting, directed the disaster management department (DMD) to immediately provide Rs 92 crore to the agriculture department so that it could provide compensation to the farmers.
DMD secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal informed the chief minister that as per the survey conducted by the agriculture department, the hailstorm “damaged more than 33 per cent of the standing Rabi crop over 54,000 hectares spread across different panchayats in six districts — Muzaffarpur, Gaya, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Sheohar and Rohtas.”
Bihar had a net sown area of 50.5 lakh hectares in 2020-21.
Though the area affected by the hailstorm is just around one per cent of the normally cultivated land, the state is awaiting another wave of similar weather conditions later this week and has alerted the farmers.
The IMD has issued an alert about the possibility of 10mm to 50mm rain along with thunderstorms across the state between March 30 and April 1. It has also advised the farmers to reap wherever the crop is ready and store it indoors.
Nitish dig at Shah
Nitish took an indirect dig at Union home minister Amit Shah ahead of his proposed visit to the state to attend a BJP function for the celebration of Emperor Asoka’s birth anniversary, adds PTI.
Nitish, who was addressing a function in Patna by his JD(U) on the Maurya emperor’s ‘jayanti’, also asked the people to be on guard against attempts by the saffron party, which he did not mention by name, to “exploit” the historical figure for “political gains”.
“There are people who are trying to foment tension in society for political gains. Beware of them. In a few days, someone from Delhi will come and try to mislead you in the name of Samrat Asoka,” Nitish said on Wednesday.
