Compensation yet to reach 3,000 drought-hit farmers

Chairing an inter-departmental drought review meeting at the Collectorate here, Yadav said that the failure of both the monsoons has led to severe drought in the state and due to this 71,443 farmers in Madurai district have been affected. 

Out of the affected lot, most of them have received drought relief announced by the State government and only 3,000 were yet to receive the compensation. Officials defended that the delay was due to the problems in linking the account numbers of the left out farmers. 

He also said that Madurai was one among the AMRUT cities and hence in another three to four years, it would be granted Rs 800 crore to mitigate the water problem. RB Udayakumar, Revenue Minister, who participated in the meeting, said that the drought relief fund was given without interference from middlemen and amount was credited directly into the bank accounts of the affected farmers. 

Sellur K Raju, State Minister for Cooperation, said that due to drought in forests, animals were intruding into nearby villages in search of food. “Hence Rs 5 crore has been allotted to create water troughs in the forest to tackle the situation,” he said.