Khattar govt caught napping as swarms of locusts damage standing crops in many Haryana districts

The Haryana government seems to have been caught napping after swarms of locusts, which entered the state three days ago, destroyed standing crops on thousands of acres, leaving scores of farmers in distress. Though the locusts, a voracious insect that eats up to its body weight daily, had entered India through western Rajasthan in the second week of May, the BJP-led Haryana government ignored the ringing bells of destruction.

Turning a deaf ear to a warning issued by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation against a severe attack by the locusts when the swarms had hit the Indo-Pak border, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led state government was caught up in a liquor scam and other scandals, leaving the farmer community in a lurch.

After entering its new destination Haryana after Rajasthan, the locusts have hit hard in districts including Mahendragarh, Rewari, Jhajjar, Mewat and Gurgaon and are now proceeding to the neighbouring districts and states.

Expressing concern over its indifferent attitude towards the plight of farmers, the Haryana Congress has slammed the Khattar government and demanded adequate compensation for the damage to the crops across the state.

Accusing the government of callous attitude towards farmers, Kumari Selja, president of Haryana Congress Committee, said that people were facing heavy losses due to the attack by locusts. She demanded that the state government take immediate steps to save crops of the farmers from locusts and to compensate those farmers whose crops have been damaged.

“The government should immediately take steps to save crops from locusts and give compensation to farmers whose crops have been damaged by locusts after conducting special girdawari without any delay,” Selja said.

Former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda also blamed the Khattar government for its failure in stopping the locust attack. "Though the government was aware of the approaching swarms about six months ago, no preventive measures were taken," Hooda said.

“If steps were taken to deal with this locust attack in time, the farmers could have been saved from major losses. But the government, despite being aware of the impending problem, did nothing and left the farmers alone to defend their fields and crops. Instead of doing anything to save the farmers, the government appealed to the farmers to clap and bang utensils to drive the locusts away. Therefore, locust swarms caused a lot of damage in districts like Mahendragarh, Rewari, Gurgaon, Mewat and Faridabad. Millet, cotton and other crops were destroyed,” Hooda said.

The Leader of Opposition raised the demand that the government launch a special drive to assess the loss in all the districts and pay compensation to the farmers immediately. “There should not be any delay in assessing the damage and making the payment because the farmer is in distress due to damages caused by unseasonal rains and hailstorms and outfall of the Corona pandemic,” he said.