Mansa (Punjab), Mar 26 (IANS): In an initiative aimed at safeguarding the interests of farmers, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday announced that in future, farmers incurring any loss from a natural disaster would be duly compensated prior to completion of assessment.

Addressing a function here to distribute compensation to farmers who have lost their crops due to pink worm attack, the Chief Minister said it is unfortunate that food growers get the compensation after a long and troublesome process of assessment of crop loss.

He said this would be reversed and now farmers would get compensation prior to assessment as already being done in Delhi.

Mann said this would be instrumental in saving the undue harassment of farmers for getting compensation after a cumbersome process.

The Chief Minister said, in the Malwa belt farmers had lost their cotton crop not because of attack by white and pink worm, but it was due to the supply of poor quality seeds and pesticides that was chiefly responsible for this huge loss.

He announced a thorough probe in this regard and said strict action will be taken against those who had supplied these spurious seeds and pesticides to farmers.

Mann categorically said the real culprits was the then government which supplied poor seeds and pesticides to farmers.

He said if the then government had performed its duty well and ensured supply of good seeds and pesticides then the farmers would not have faced such hardships. He said meagre compensation after such a whopping loss rubs salt to the wounds of the farmers.

Mann said the successive governments have turned the food growers of the country into beggars, who have to face a lot of exploitation for getting the compensation of their losses.