Gujarat announces package for farmers hit by floods

Gujarat announces relief package for farmers hit by floods; Congress and AAP allege ‘man-made calamity’. Government provides special relief to farmers with 33%+ crop loss, incl. ₹8,500/hectare for non-irrigated crops & ₹1,02,500/hectare for uprooted/fallen perennial horticultural crops. Congress demands package for property/house damage and SIT probe.

Amidst a raging controversy over the sudden release of water from the Narmada dam, which inundated the districts of Narmada, Bharuch, and parts of Vadodara on September 17-19, the Government of Gujarat on Saturday announced a special relief package for farmers hit by the floods, with standing crops destroyed, and property and houses damaged in around 100 villages along the banks of the river. 

The Opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have accused the State government of not following the manual for the process of releasing water from the dam. Both Opposition parties termed the floods a “man-made calamity”. The allegedly sudden discharge of water on September 17 flooded the three districts at unprecedented levels. 

The Congress and the AAP allege that the State authorities did not release water from September 11 onward, allowing water to accumulate and “artificially overflow” on September 17 to coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birth day. 

However, the Sardar Sarovar Dam authorities have maintained that the release of up to 18 lakh cusecs of water was necessitated by unforeseen circumstances, including heavy rainfall and flash floods in the Narmada river’s catchment areas in Madhya Pradesh, which led to massive inflows of water despite the absence of a significant forecast. 

The Sardar Sarovar Dam, situated in Gujarat, is the terminal structure of the inter-State Narmada river project. The multi-purpose project provides irrigation, electricity, and drinking water to the States of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. 

Based on a report on the estimated damage caused to standing crops in the three districts due to flooding, the State government is providing a special relief package from the State Budget, in addition to support from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), to help farmers with their losses. 

In a statement, the government said that the benefits would be given to farmers who have incurred 33% or more loss of agricultural and horticultural crops for the 2023-24 kharif season in the villages declared as affected by the district administration, subject to a cap of two hectares.