A file picture of a village hit by the hailstorm

Raiganj, Aug. 10: An alleged goof-up by the North Dinajpur district agriculture department and a delay in the formation of the permanent committee of the zilla parishad have prevented the distribution of Rs 90 lakh to the farmers whose houses and crops had been damaged in a hailstorm in the Raiganj and Hemtabad blocks.

Even the suicide by a debt-ridden farmer in May did not have any effect on the authorities. As the zilla parishad and the agriculture department are trading charges, it is the farmers who are at the receiving end.

The two blocks were hit by a severe thunderstorm on March 31 night, followed by hailstorms in four-five violent spells. In the morning of April 1, paddy fields were lying covered under a blanket of ice and the entire boro crop was destroyed.

The district officials said corn, wheat and jute were also destroyed by the hailstorm.

Armed with an estimate of the crop damage submitted by the agriculture department, the district magistrate’s office wrote to the Bengal government asking for compensation. The government soon released Rs 90 lakh to the agriculture department.

Bhabes Barman, a farmer of the Maharaja area who lost his entire paddy crops, committed suicide in May by consuming poison. Barman had borrowed money from some local people at high rates of interest and was left penniless after the storm.

Soon after this incident, the district administration announced that the compensation would be distributed soon.

Ramen Barman, a resident of the Maharaja area, said he had lost his house and his crops in the storm. “We received Rs 10,000 from the block development office to reconstruct our house. But after that, no help came. I have been forced to sell a portion of my land to repay a part of the money I had borrowed from usurers. If I do not get the compensation, I will not be able to grow paddy.”

The district principal agricultural officer, Bolaichand Chakrabarty, conceded that his office had received Rs 90 lakh. “We cannot distribute the money without the sanction of the permanent committee of the zilla priashad, which has been formed only recently.”

Zilla parishad member, Purnendu Dey, however, squarely blamed the agriculture department for the delay. “In case of emergencies such as storms, the funds can be sanctioned by the district magistrate, who is the chief executive officer of the zilla parishad,” he said.

District magistrate, Sukumar Bhattacharyya, said he would talk to the agriculture department and the zilla parishad to distribute the money as soon as possible.