What a cruel joke with the farmers and peasants of Gajansoo Marh and Phallain Mandal area of Jammu district who had suffered damages to their crops owing to floods, heavy rains and hailstorm during the September 2014 floods. Cheques signed by the Sub-Divisional Agricultural officers given to the affected farmers ranged between rupees 32 to rupees 113 maximum per sufferers which looks ridiculous. The farmers who were given these cheques flew into rage saying that the government was playing a cruel joke with them. Their losses ran not into thousand but into lakhs and giving them as little as an amount in two figures was tantamount to rubbing salt into their wounds. The farmers refused to accept the cheques and returned these to the officer who had come to distribute them.
Many farmers alleged that some revenue and agricultural official sat in the panchayat house for some time, never visited the sites of damage and prepared the list as they liked. This was only a table work and no field survey was conducted. The farmers have been waiting for about ten months hoping that the government would come to their help and justice would be done to them. Many farmers said that this was something which would force the farmers to commit suicide. Can one imagine that the compensation of rupees 32 is worthy calling it flood relief or relief for natural calamity. The farmers of Gajansoo Marh and Phallain Mandal area of Jammu district have decided to take to streets if justice is not done to them. In the meanwhile they have sent a memorandum to the Governor which is signed by about 75 farmers complaining that gross injustice has been done to them by the agricultural and revenue departments. One of the farmers with about 142 kanals of land that had been adversely affected by hailstorm and flood was offered relief to the tune of rupees seventy five which he refused to accept.
We are surprised whether justice will ever be done to these poor farmers. This is a serious issue and before the farmers resort to extreme steps the government should intervene. An inquiry should be ordered whether the revenue and agricultural functionaries actually visited the sites or they wrote their reports while sipping tea in the panchayat house. Elders among the farmer community have expressed resentment. We strongly recommend that the government conduct an inquiry into this scandal and do justice to the farmers.
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