Punjab: Special Girdawari on crop loss to be completed by October 7
Punjab: The Punjab government is working to complete a special Girdawari (land survey) by early next week to assess crop losses. Farmers who suffered losses during the August-September floods will receive compensation of ₹20,000 per acre. The first round of special Girdawari (land survey) in flood-affected areas of the state has reportedly been completed. It was conducted by Patwaris, and will now be verified by Kanungos and Tehsildars in the districts. Additional Chief Secretary Revenue Anurag Verma told The Tribune, “Our goal is to complete the special Girdawari by October 7th. Once completed, the report will be published and distributed to village Sarpanchs, Panchs, and Lambardars.”
This is the first time the state government is publishing damage assessments and then giving flood-affected people time to file objections, if any were missed. This process was initiated at the behest of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who raised the issue that many large and influential landowners previously received compensation, while small and marginal farmers were left out by some unscrupulous revenue officials. Verma further stated that they have published and distributed lists assessing the damage in over 300 villages. A total of 2,614 villages were affected by the floods.
Official sources told The Tribune that their initial assessment of crop losses revealed that 1.58 lakh hectares of paddy land, 2,902 hectares of maize land, 12,758 hectares of cotton land, and 11,896 hectares of sugarcane land were damaged during the August-September floods. In these initial estimates, the highest damage to standing crops was recorded in Gurdaspur (40,153 hectares), Amritsar (29,523 hectares), and Jalandhar (29,523 hectares). Sources said farmers whose crops, including horticulture and annual plantation crops (sugarcane in Punjab’s case), have suffered more than 33 percent damage will receive full compensation of Rs 20,000 per acre. The central government will provide Rs 6,800 per acre and the state government will provide Rs 13,200 per acre.
