Ministers assure compensation to farmers, opening of dry and green fruit shops

A Correspondent

DHUBRI: Assam Food and Civil Supplies Minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury and Agriculture Minister Atul Bora visited Dhubri on Wednesday and took stock of the lockdown situation.

They assured compensation for losses of the farmers and opening of shops for dry and green fruits in Ramzan month which begins in a couple of days. Both the ministers held several rounds of meetings with the district-level officials and stockists of essential commodities at the Dhubri DC’s office conference hall in presence of Dhubri Deputy Commissioner Anant Lal Gyani and Superintendent of Police Yuvraj Kumar.

Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, while speaking on the present scenario prevailing in the district, told media persons that there was no denying the fact that a section of farmers in the State were facing losses due to the prolonged lockdown.

“As assessed, estimated and informed by Dhubri district administration, farmers have incurred a loss of around Rs 2 crore. However, the Central Government and State Government’s financial assistance have already been credited to farmers’ bank accounts under various schemes, including special grant sanctioned in this lockdown due to COVID-19 in the form of food items and cash amount of Rs 1000,” Bora said.

When pointed out about the plight of watermelon growers of Golokganj area in Dhubri district who could not harvest their ripe production between the month of March and April, Bora said that he had been informed about this by the local legislator Ashwani Roy Sarkar and necessary instructions had been given to the district administration to re-assess the losses of watermelon growers along with the losses of other farmers.

While addressing the media persons, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury said that there was stock of essential food items for one month now in the district and if food items on transit reached, there would be no dearth of essential food items for several months from now.

“Further, in view of the holy Ramzan month which will start in a couple of days, shops and vendors dealing in dry and green fruits will be opened and people will have no problem getting them from the markets by maintaining social distancing and wearing face masks,” Choudhury added.

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