SIDHU OFFERS ₹24LAKH OUT OF HIS POCKET
OTHIAN (AMRITSAR) : Assuring all support to farmers whose crop was gutted in Rajasansi late on Friday night, local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday announced ₹ 24-lakh compensation to them out of his own pocket.
The minister, who reached Othian, one of the affected villages, said as the fire broke out in the fields due to short circuit, the power corporation will be paying ₹8,000 per acre to the affected farmers, taking the total relief to ₹24 lakh as around 300-acre crop was gutted.
“I understand this is not enough, and this is the reason I have come here today. To further compensate the farmers as I feel their pain, I will give the same amount out of my own pocket,” said the minister, adding that it was his duty to help the people of Rajasansi assembly segment, who he said had always supported him.
“I do television. I earn money. So there is no harm in compensating the farmers,” he said.
Sidhu, who visited the charred fields, said he would urge chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to increase the compensation for crop loss. He also asked Amritsar deputy commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha to take up the matter with electricity department and ensure that high-tension wires hanging over fields are removed or rectified.
In the past, too, Sidhu as the Amritsar MP had given ₹1 crore for the ‘Go Green, Go Clean’ campaign.
I do television. I earn money. So there is no harm in compensating the affected farmers. NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU, local bodies minister