Shivangi Prakash-
Published on: September 9, 2021, at 10:22 IST
The Agriculture Ministry was questioned by a Telangana High Court Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice MS Ramchander Rao and Justice T Vinod Kumar on delay in delivering compensation to farmers.
The Judge asked Advocate General B S Prasad that why the farmers who lost their grain to the floods in 2020 were not compensated during the hearing of a PIL filed by Vissa Kiran Kumar and two others.
The Court also ordered that the Union and State Governments pay ex-gratia / crop insurance to the farmers who had been wronged.
In response, the Union Agriculture Ministry represented by Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) informed the Court that a sum of 449 crores had been released to Telangana Government for ex- gratia payment.
In addition, the Court was informed of the availability of $1,456.87 in the State’s SDRF funds under the Disaster Management Act to cover the above expense.
The Court was informed by petitioner’s Counsel Ravi Kumar that he had used RTI to obtain information about crop insurance from the Union Ministry, and that the Union Home Ministry stated that an amount of 188 crores had been released to the Government for payment of crop insurance subsidy to farmers who lost their crops in the 2020 floods.
The matter was adjourned to September 13 after Advocate General BS Prasad requested more time to file a thorough rebuttal affidavit.
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