New Delhi: Punjab on Monday demanded that the Centre should double the amount of compensation given under State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) for crop damaged beyond 50 per cent. The present limit of the compensation is Rs 6,000 per hectare. Keeping in view the rising input costs in agriculture and its vulnerability to adverse climatic challenges it becomes imperative to double the compensation amount immediately, Punjab's Revenue & Rehabilitation Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said at the two-day 'National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction' at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi.
He also advocated for a comprehensive techno-legal regime to limit the ill-effects of disasters through formation of effective policies, guidelines and by-laws and their strict enforcement by relevant state departments, local bodies, agencies and private establishments. Various states put forth their demands and suggestions to deal with disasters in the meeting held under chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Majithia lamented that the union government did not grant a single penny to state against a demand of Rs 5,112 crore as drought compensation.
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03:15 AM, May 14, 2013
Hyderabad: The unseasonal rains that lashed Andhra Pradesh over the last four days have claimed 25 lives and damaged crops over 70,000 hectares, officials said on Wednesday. The deaths, almost all due to thunderbolts, were reported from 11 districts. Guntur accounted for seven deaths; four people died in Nellore, three in Prakasam, two each in Warangal, Krishna and East Godavari and one each in West Godavari, Khammam, Adilabad, Visakhapatnam and...
04:58 AM, Apr 25, 2013
Hyderabad: Six persons have died in unseasonal rain in Andhra Pradesh in the past 48 years. Twenty-three persons have also been injured as rain and hailstorms hit Telangana and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh. The other majorly affected districts include Hyderabad, RangaReddy, Nizamabad and Medak. The rainfall caused crop damages in 17,925 hectares while 350 houses also suffered damage. The Met department has warned that thunder squall may occur in...
09:56 AM, Apr 04, 2013
Three people died in Andhra Pradesh after heavy rains lashed several parts of the state. The heavy downpour has damaged more than 20,000 hectares of standing crops in several districts. ...
03:25 PM, Feb 17, 2013
Intensifying the legal battle over the Cauvery river waters issue, Tamil Nadu Government on Monday decided to move the Supreme Court seeking damages from Karnataka for the loss of crops caused by the neighbouring state's "adamant approach" on release of water. Initiating yet another litigation on the bitter decades-old Cauvery row between the two riparian states, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa ordered officials to file a suit in the apex court claiming...
04:14 PM, Jan 21, 2013
New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel ordered a probe into the BT Brinjal on Thursday after a parliamentary committee report said that adequate tests were not carried out and that the committee approving its use was under tremendous pressure from a minister to approve the BT Brinjal. The report quoted Dr PM Bhargava, the Supreme Court nominee on the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) as saying that a "minister" was putting...
03:55 PM, Aug 09, 2012
Bangalore: The monsoon that played traunt for more than a year is in full vigour in western Karnataka reviving the lost hopes of people. The Malnad belt of the state " from Belgaum district to Kodagu " and coastal areas received heavy rains on Monday resulting increased inflow into reservoirs. Incessant rains wreaked havoc in parts of Mudigere taluk, resulting in landslides on Charmadi Ghat, thereby disrupting the vehicular movements...
12:38 PM, Aug 07, 2012
New Delhi: An Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is expected to meet on Tuesday over relief measures to tackle the drought-like situation unfolding in several states. There is 21 per cent rainfall deficiency across the country, which is affecting the sowing of kharif crops. Sources say the EGOM will primarily focus on addressing fodder and water scarcity, besides insulating farmers from higher input costs. The...
07:20 AM, Jul 31, 2012
Mumbai: Poor rains in India's key pulse-producing southern and western states have affected sowing and could trim output in the 2012-13 year that began on July 1, the agriculture minister said on Friday. Lower output of pulses could force India, the world's largest producer and consumer, to import more lentils thereby adding to inflation woes. India, the world's leading importer of lentils, consumes over 20 million tonnes of assorted lentils,...
12:52 AM, Jul 07, 2012
A rainfall deficit of 31 per cent and a delay of two weeks has disrupted the lives of farmers and thrown agricultural activity out of gear. ...
11:10 PM, Jul 03, 2012
New Delhi: Every day some 3,000 Indian children die from illnesses related to malnutrition, and yet countless heaps of rodent-infested wheat and rice are rotting in fields across the north of their own country. It is an extraordinary paradox created by a rigid regime of subsidies for grain farmers, a woeful lack of storage facilities and an inefficient, corruption-plagued public distribution system that fails millions of impoverished people. And it...
02:40 PM, Jul 02, 2012
New Delhi: Monsoon, the lifeline of Indian agriculture, is most likely to hit Kerala by June 5 and there is no room for concern over sowing of kharif (summer) crops like paddy and pulses, a top India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said. "Most likely, the southwest monsoon will reach Kerala by June 5," IMD Director General LS Rathore said. Asked if there is a delay in monsoon onset, he said,...
08:19 AM, Jun 03, 2012
Bangalore/Raichur: Raichur in North Karnataka battled floods three years ago, but the district is still reeling under a severe drought. It's as if the Gods are mocking the farmers of Raichur district. In 2009 the farmers' homes and crops were destroyed by flooding and now three years on, a severe drought has hit the farmers hard. Gudusi Ramaiah a cotton farmer committed suicide in April this year by consuming pesticides....
06:10 AM, May 12, 2012
New Delhi: Prices of vegetables are seeing a 10 to 15 per cent rise across the country due to unseasonal rainfall across north India. In Shimla, heavy hailstorm damaged a standing apple crop and caused huge losses. Farmers in the rest of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana too are suffering from similar problems due to unexpected rainfall. State governments have assured aid and will approach the Centre for more aid. It...
10:13 AM, Apr 13, 2012
Jaipur: Terming the genetically modified crops as the "next revolution" in farming, a panel of experts on Thursday batted strongly for employing modern techniques and methods to boost farm productivity. Discussing the importance of technology in agriculture sector at a panel discussion, one of the panelist Swapan Datta said that the biotechnology can improve biodiversity and help in improving farm productivity as well. "There is no relation between biotechnology and...
05:26 AM, Apr 13, 2012
New Delhi: Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, defending his controversial decision to impose a moratorium on the commercial release of Bt Brinjal says, "On Bt Brinjal, I would not say, from my experience that foreign NGOs influenced the decision". His remarks came against the backdrop of Prime Minister's comments that some NGOs based in the United States and Scandinavian countries were not "fully appreciative" of the development challenges India faces...
04:42 PM, Feb 27, 2012
New Delhi: Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, defending his controversial decision to impose a moratorium on the commercial release of Bt Brinjal says, "On Bt Brinjal, I would not say, from my experience that foreign NGOs influenced the decision". His remarks came against the backdrop of Prime Minister's comments that some NGOs based in the United States and Scandinavian countries were not "fully appreciative" of the development challenges India faces...
04:42 PM, Feb 27, 2012
New Delhi: India's annual monsoon rains are likely to keep their date with Kerala bringing showers to the mainland by May 31, which has raised hopes for a normal season. The weather office has forecast normal rainfall for the second consecutive year and farmers are looking forward for a steady progress of the season that could help them have a bumper crop. Director, Metrological Department B P Yadav said, "The...
12:32 PM, May 16, 2011
Nashik: Six farmers have committed suicide in Nashik in the last few days after their grape crops were destroyed by unseasonal rains. The farmers took the drastic step even after the state government announced a Rs 1,000 crore relief package last week. Grape farmer Kiran Jadhav's family in stunned silence after the 23-year-old committed suicide after his grape crop, his only income against crippling debt, was destroyed following unseasonal rainfall...
09:21 PM, Dec 11, 2010
Hyderabad: Heavy rains in coastal Andhra Pradesh have claimed 16 lives and damaged crops in over 100,000 acres even as the threat of cyclonic storm looms large over the state, officials said on Tuesday. Dozens of villages and residential areas in several towns remained inundated as rains continued to cause havoc in north and south coastal districts. At least 16 people were killed in the rain-related incidents during the last...
03:17 PM, Nov 02, 2010
