Nilam hit farmers stare helplessly as Phailin fast approaching N Andhra coast

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Oct 11, 2013: Famers of Vizag, who are yet to receive compensation announced by the state government for their crops damaged during Nilam cyclone, that wrecked havoc in November last year are staring helplessly at the Phailin, very severe cyclone, which is expected to hit the Vizag on Saturday night, cursing their fate.

Though the compensation for the paddy and sugarcane loss in the form of input subsidy was announced by the state government immediately after the Nilam cyclone, in December 2012, the funds were released only on Sep 25 this year, close to one long year after the natural calamity struck the farmers.

And due to the ongoing Samaikyandhra agitation and no government official attending duties since two months the compensation is yet to reach the farmers.

“We are yet to recover from the nightmare caused by Nilam and now we are hearing about Phailin which is said to be more powerful than Nilam. We have not received the Nilam compensation yet and now another cyclone immediately is here to kill us,” said Thathabbai of Mungapaka.

Around 24,586 hectares of crop was damaged during the two spells of Nilam incurring heavy losses to around 1.06 lakh, small, marginal and other farmers.  The state government has released Rs 23.41 crore towards input subsidy for these farmers whose crops were damaged more than 50 per cent. 

This was against the report submitted by the district administration to the state government putting the damages caused by Nilam cyclone at Rs 355 crore, including Rs  106 crore in the agriculture sector after crops in 50,000 hectares were damaged.

Rs 23.41 cr was district’s share in the total relief of Rs 372.37 crore released by the state government to the Nilam affected farmers in seven districts.

Meanwhile GVMC sought the state government several times since November last year to sanction Rs 42.8 crore to repair nearly 45 km of out of the 1,400 km of roads in the city damaged by Nilam. However, the government didn’t heed to the requests of GVMC and is yet to sanction the funds.