Register total land under cultivation on portal: CM to officials

CHANDIGARH: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday directed officials to ensure 100% registration of land under cultivation and physical verification of the crops sown on the ‘Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’ (MFMB) portal.

While reviewing policies such as ‘Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’ and ‘Mera Pani, Meri Virasat’, and the preparedness to deal with Covid-19 with the administrative secretaries and deputy commissioners, Khattar said every DC should ensure physical verification of the agricultural fields with a zero-error approach.

Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala, state home minister Anil Vij and state agriculture minister JP Dalal were also present during the meeting.

Mapping of land

During the meeting, additional chief secretary (agriculture) Dr Sumita Misra said 6,205 officers of various departments have been engaged for mapping the agricultural land.

Farmers have switched to sowing pulses, oilseeds and fodder under crop diversification, she added.

The CM was apprised that under the ‘Mera Pani, Meri Virasat’ scheme against the target of diversifying two lakh acre, alternate crops have been sown across around 87,000 acre.

Khattar said efforts should be made to encourage farmers to grow alternate crops such as pulses, cotton, maize, etc. He said saving depleting groundwater levels is the utmost priority of the state government, so farmers should be encouraged to grow the said crops as procurement of all these crops will be done on MSP.

Preparedness for third Covid wave

Additional chief secretary (health and family welfare) Rajeev Arora said in view of the expected third wave of Covid-19, health infrastructure has been strengthened at district, sub-divisional, CHCS and PHCS levels.

He said adequate bed facilities have already been made for Covid paediatric patients along with adequate oxygen supply and pulse oximeter.

The CM was told that eight new government molecular labs have been approved in Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Fatehabad, Jhajjar, Charkhi Dadri, Palwal, Mahendrgarh and Hisar.

With the establishment of these labs, a total per day lab capacity is likely to be enhanced to over one lakh tests per day.