Jammu farmers suffers huge losses due to floods

Jammu, August 27 (Scoop News) – To take stock of the losses caused to the helpless farmers due to floods cause by recent heavy rains, a team of BJP senior leaders under the leadership of State Vice-President Col.(Retd.) Uttam Singh and State General Secretary Sat Sharma (C.A.) visited Sitaryal, Chak Sikander, Bhadwal, Indri, Bakore, Popar and Hamirpur villages falling  in  Khour and  Akhnoor Constituencies. The team members had interactions with the local affected families.

Sat Sharma, while expressing grave concern over the indifferent attitude of the government towards these affected families, said that it is indeed very unfortunate that both these constituencies are represented by two  Congress ministers in the state’s coalition government but still feel oprphans as no one has shown any concern towards their plight. He said that the factual position of high claims of both these ministers can be well judged after visiting the flood affected areas and families. He said that bunds at many places on the banks of river  Chenab gave away and the water reached deep into the nearby villages, thus causing huge losses.

Sat Sharma said that  it is not the first time when such a natural calamity has hit the poor farmers. In the years 1988, 1992 and 1996, the people living in these areas had to face huge losses and no proper compensation was released in their favour. Had the government taken lessons from the past and worked towards adopting an effective policy for these people, this year’s losses could have been averted, said Sat Sharma and advised the local representatives to abandon the policy of misleading the masses and devote their time and energy on mitigating the sufferings of the people who had posed faith in them and returned to the state assembly with high hopes. He also demanded to hold an independent inquiry to look into the lapses and fix responsibility as to who is guilty for  repetition of such incidents of damage and losses.

Col.  Uttam Singh, who is also Prabhari for Akhnoor district, said that the helpless people residing in the areas near river Chenab face damage to crops, loss of cattle and precious lives but no one is there in the government to ever think that the poor people too are human beings and need a helping hand. He said that the affected villages houses population of farmers and these farmers face losses almost every year. Some times, it is drought and other time it is flood, which wash away their standing crops and consume human lives. If during a particular year, the natural calamities do not harm them, it is the lack of irrigational water in canals, shortage of seeds and fertilizers, long hours cuts of electricity which too hit them.

Kissan Morcha State President Karan Singh asked the government to frame a policy aimed at protecting the lives and crops of the farmers. He also stressed on adequate facilities of education, health and transport to the villages.He said that the policy of discrimination towards farmers should be stopped and they should be treated equal in all matters and at all levels.

Senior leader Chaman Lal Kanathia, Daljit Singh, Ravinder Raina, Manmohan Singh  Kamal Bhagat, Avtar Singh Manhas, Joginder Singh, Jagatar Singh, Kulvir singh, Surinder singh, Vijay Kumar, M. Vedpal,  Jaswant Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Kabla Singh  and Smt. Sheela Devi accompanied the BJP team. 

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