Centre to provide assistance to Hry govt for adequate canal

water supply Hisar, Sep 9 (PTI) Union Minister Sanjeev Kumar Balyantoday assured the Haryana government that the Centre willprovide all assistance to it for ensuring adequate supply ofcanal water. The Union Minister of State for Water Resources, RiverDevelopment and Ganga Rejuvenation was addressing to farmersat the two-day ‘Rabi Krishi Mela’ in Haryana AgriculturalUniversity here. Lauding the scientists of the university for their"outstanding work" in the field of foodgrain production, hesaid the research conducted by them had led to "significantquantitative enhancement in foodgrain production in thecountry". He said it was unfortunate that the previous governmentshad not taken any step to "improve" the financial condition ofthe farmers and the university. He urged Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ WelfareMinister O P Dhankar to extend all possible assistance onbehalf of the state government to improve the financialsituation of the university and the farmers. Speaking on the occasion, Dhankar said farmers should notremain constrained to being merely producers, but also learnto market their produce. Their financial condition would not improve until theyare linked directly to the consumers, he said. Dhankar said the Haryana government had set a target toincrease the income of farmers to Rs one lakh per acre, andincrease production of vegetables from 77,000 metric tonnes totwo lakh metric tonnes. He said while 30 per cent of the farmers in the state hadopted for the new crop insurance scheme, the government wouldprovide compensation of Rs 12,000 per acre to the uninsuredfarmers for losses due to crop damage caused by naturalcalamities. PTI SUN AQS SMNAQS