Ratia, October 27 (Advocate Gurpreet Singh Mander):- A meeting of farmers was held today at the Farmers’ Rest House in Ratia. Following the meeting, the farmers submitted a memorandum to the SDM, Ratia, demanding an immediate assessment of the damage to paddy crops caused by hailstorms and adequate compensation for affected farmers.
District President Nirbhay Singh said that hailstorms had destroyed the entire paddy crop in the Ratia area, but even after four days, the crop damage assessment had not begun. This delay has caused widespread anger among farmers.
He said that farmers were already struggling due to the policies of the BJP government. The restriction of 28 quintals of paddy procurement per acre, cancellation of registrations and repeated visits to government offices for re-registration had caused considerable hardship. Now, despite the destruction of their crops, the government was delaying the damage assessment.
Nirbhay Singh warned that if the assessment process did not begin by tomorrow, farmers would gherao the homes of BJP leaders. He demanded that the government immediately assess the losses and provide appropriate compensation to affected farmers.
**Key demands of the farmers:**
1. Immediately assess the damage to paddy crops caused by hailstorms and provide adequate compensation.
2. Increase the permissible moisture limit for paddy procurement in hailstorm-affected areas from 17% to 22%.
3. Immediately remove the condition limiting paddy procurement to 28 quintals per acre.
4. Immediately restore the registrations of farmers whose registrations have been cancelled.
Farmers Gurpreet Singh Dadupur, Tarsem Singh Bhundarwas, Sardul Singh Hukamwali, Karamjit Singh, Mudri Bola and a large number of other farmers were present on the occasion.
