(TOI)
Union petroleum and skill development minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday wrote a letter to Union agriculture minister Radhamohan Singh seeking central assistance for farmers hit by pest attacks on their crops.Highlighting that farmers were setting their crops on fire and committing suicide due to pests ruining their paddy, Dharmendra wrote to Radhamohan, “I would like your urgent personal intervention to explore possible central intervention and assistance to save the lives and livelihood of landless agricultural labourers, sharecroppers and small, marginal sub-marginal cultivators.” Dharmendra also sought to send a central fact finding team to Odisha to assess the ground realities. The petroleum minister wrote that the situation has spiralled out of hand. With crop damaged in 1.8 lakh hectare, farmers in nine districts are in distress, he wrote.
