Even as the state remained on the edge, with almost 75,000 cusecs water being released by the BBMB, the government is grappling with the issue of compensating farmers, who have suffered losses worth crores.
The government has been dilly-dallying on formulating a crop insurance policy, which could have been useful to compensate farmers whose losses are now estimated at Rs 750 crore. In such a situation, the relief that the state can offer is just Rs 12,200 per hectare (or Rs 5,083.33 per acre) from the State Disaster Relief Management Fund, unless the Centre recognises flooding in Punjab as a natural disaster and gives it a flood relief package.