Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan announces relief for rain-hit farmers

Heavy rains in Madhya Pradesh, which have caused massive damage to life, crops and property in the rural areas, have led Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to announce relief measures for farmers in at least 49 districts.

Chouhan said that around 9800 villages have been affected by excessive rains, and in some of them, crops have been destroyed.

Chouhan also announced monetary relief for the families of farmers who had died due to rains or, had lost their livestock. "In the accounts ordinance that we are going to issue, we will deduct some money from some regions. It doesn't matter if development projects are affected, but we will not let the lives of farmers get ruined. We have provided an immediate amount of Rs.2000 crores. We will keep the relief fund for distribution," he said.

Chouhan took stock of hailstorm affected areas in the province and interacted with the affected people. He also appealed to the central government to provide aid to the affected people, and to form schemes to protect the victims in future. "I would like to convey to the Indian Government and all political parties to unilaterally form a decision on farmers' crop insurance schemes. If he faces any loss, he should get full compensation for it. We will have to make and implement such scheme. We will initiate to do that from Madhya Pradesh," added Chouhan.

He said that necessary action would be taken against the money lenders who turned up at a time of crisis to demand their money back from the farmers, driving the latter to commit suicide. Most of the farmers are already heavily in debt as they borrow money to make the initial investment to plant the crops only to loose the crops as well due to extreme weather conditions.