Package for Punjab farmers approved

NEW DELHI, MAY 30. A high-level meeting on Punjab convened by the Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, today accepted the State's demand for payment of compensation to farmers facing difficulties in carrying out farming across the barbed wire fence on the Indo-Pak border.

The meeting, attended by the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, Rural Development Minister, Mr. Sunder Lal Patwa, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr. K.C. Pant, State Chief Minister, Mr. Prakash Singh Badal and DG, BSF, Mr. E.N. Ramamohan, decided to give Rs. seven crores to the State as compensation package to farmers in the border areas.

The meeting also agreed to construct 25 bridges on drains in defence land for providing better communication to people residing in the border areas.

Briefing presspersons after the hour-long meeting, Mr. Badal said he was extremely happy that the Centre had convened a top-level meeting on the problems faced by the people of Punjab, particularly those living in the border districts of Amritsar, Ferozepur and Gurudaspur. He said the Centre had promised to give special funds for development of border districts by setting up schools and hospitals and providing drinking water. The Rural Development Minister said he would visit the border areas to get a first-hand account of the problems faced by the people and take effective steps to mitigate them, Mr. Badal quoted Mr. Patwa as saying at the meeting.

Another important decision was to provide the State more female home guard jawans for frisking women agriculture labourers seeking to carry out farming activity across the barbed wire fence, he added.

According to the Home Secretary, Mr. Kamal Pande, the meeting also decided that toilets should be constructed on the other side of the fence for the benefit of women. It would do away with the humiliating practice of women labourers attending the call of nature under the glare of flood lights and search lights, he explained.

Another highlight of the meeting was the decision to ask the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to maintain more roads in the State.

- PTI

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