BHUBANESWAR : Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari on Tuesday said the state government will take a call on whether to bring a legislation on sharecroppers during the next session of the Assembly.
Addressing mediapersons here, Pujari said the issue of sharecroppers will be discussed at a high-level meeting soon. “The sharecroppers are not eligible for compensation due to crop loss caused by any natural calamity. They will also not be eligible for the input subsidy announced by the state government after the huge crop loss caused by the unseasonal rains in the last week of December. There is no law for the sharecroppers. There will be a discussion on whether such law will come into effect,” he added.
The minister further informed that all farmers affected by crop loss due to unseasonal rains will receive compensation within five days as the process of disbursal has already started. The Revenue department has already provided the compensation amount to the collectors of different districts for disbursal among the affected farmers, he added.
“The affected farmers will receive Rs 15,000 per hectare for irrigated farmland and `7,500 per hectare for non-irrigated land. Input subsidy of Rs 292.75 crore has been paid to the farmers. The loss has been estimated based on the reports of the district collectors,” Pujari informed.
He said farmers of 14 districts have suffered losses due to unseasonal rains. Partial loss to farmlands and crops have been reported in two districts. Meanwhile, Puri district was worst affected followed by Ganjam. Over 6.66 lakh farmers have been affected by the unseasonal rains which damaged crops on over 2.26 lakh hectare of land.