Send central team to MP to assess crop damage: BJP, Cong MPs

NEW DELHI: BJP and Congress members in Lok Sabha today asked the government to send a central team to Madhya Pradesh to assess the damage caused by a severe hail storm which, they said, had badly hit 45 districts and destroyed crops in large parts of the state.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Ganesh Singh (BJP) and Sajjan Singh Verma (Cong) sought central help in meeting the situation and providing relief and rehabilitation to the affected people.

Singh said as many as 24 people were killed due to lightning strikes and severe hail storm across the state and urged the Centre to urgently send a team of officials to the affected areas to assess the damage.

Maintaining that standing crop in large tracts of land had been destroyed, Verma said its effects would lead to more suicide by farmers in the future.

The Congress member also demanded that the BJP government in the state should forego the electricity bills of farmers and provide them adequate financial relief to ensure that suicides do not take place.