Punjab government firmly standing by farmers during floods: Gurmeet Singh Khudian

Sangrur : The state government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann firmly standing by the affected people in this tough time of natural calamities like floods and will leave no stone unturned to help the farmers to replant the paddy crop in inundated fields.
Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian assured the farmers during his visit to Krishi Vigyan Kendra Kheri today where he also took stock of the arrangements being done in Sangrur district to assist farmers to replant paddy crop destroyed due to floods. The Cabinet Minister said that under the leadership of the Chief Minister, all the ministers, MLAs, administrative officers, leaders and employees of Punjab were on the working day and night on the ground to provide relief to the flood affected people.
He said that the people, who have not been affected by the floods, were reaching out in the flooded areas to help the people was truly commendable. The cabinet minister said that there has been a huge loss in Punjab due to floods, for which the state government was making continuous efforts to alleviate the suffering of the people.
The Cabinet Minister said that the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the Punjab Agricultural University were leaving no stone unturned to assist the farmers, from planting nursery of paddy crop to distributing seeds free of charge. He said that PR 126 and Basmati 1509 are less time-consuming varieties and according to university experts, these varieties can be sown up to August 15.
Cabinet Minister Gurmeet Singh also kick started the plantation of nursery of PR 126 and Basmati 1509 on 20 acre land at KVK Kheri for the flood affected farmers and also reviewed the process of distribution of free seed to the farmers. He said that Punjab government has set a target of re-plant paddy crop on an area of about 2.5 lakh acres. He said that the damage was likely to be more than this and due to the stagnation of water in the fields, the entire area would not be replanted.
On this occasion, Punjab Agricultural University VC Satbir Singh Gosal, Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal, S.S.P. Surendra Lamba, Chairman Punseed Mahinder Singh Sidhu, Chairman Improvement Trust Pritam Singh Peetu, Chairman Gau Sewa Commission Ashok Kumar, SDM Navreet Kaur Sekhon, Director Research Dr. A.S. Dhat, Director D.E.E. Dr. Gurmeet Singh Buttar, Associate Director K.V.K. Dr. Mandeep Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer Harbans Singh, Deputy Director Fisheries Rakesh Kumar, Deputy Director Animal Husbandry Sukhwinder Singh, Chairman Mukesh Juneja, OSD of Finance Minister Tapinder Singh Sohi and a large number of farmers and seed producers were also present.