khabarexpress, 19 March A delegation of MPs from Rajasthan called on Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh on Monday at his office in Parliament in New Delhi seeking his urgent intervention for providing relief to hailstorm affected farmers and urged to release special package for the sufferers. The 21 member delegation was leaded by convener of MP Cell Shri Raghuveer Singh Kaushal. Besides Kaushal the other MPs to meet PM were former Union Minister and MP Shri Subhash Maheria, Shri Kailash Meghwal, Shri Girdhari lal Bhargav, Dr. Karan Singh Yadav, Shri Sachin Pailet, Shri V.P. Singh, Smt. Sushila Bangaroo, Shri Mahavir Bhagora, Shri Jaswant Singh Vishnoi, Dr Gyan Prakash Pilania, Smt Nazma Heptullah, Smt Kiran Mahershwari, Shri Dushyan Singh, Shri Krishna Lal Valmiki, Shri Srichand Kriplani, Shri Ramswaroop kohli, Prof Rasa Singh Rawat, Shri Ram Singh Kaswa, Shri Bhawar Singh Dangawas and Shri Pushpa Jain. The MPs apprised P.M. that recent hailstorm in Rajasthan has caused wide spread damages in 23 districts of the state within an estimated 75,000 to 80,000 farmers having been badly affected. The delegation sought to immediately announce an allotment of about 25,000 MT of free wheat to Rajasthan so that the affected farmers could be helped to sustain themselves and their families for the next crop season. The MPs told PM that Rajasthan was unfortunate to face the fury of floods in August-September last year resulting in extensive damage to life and property. The state government had in August 2006,submitted a memorandum seeking special package from National calamity and contingency Fund (NCCF) to the tune of Rs 2410 crore and a special package of Rs 875 cores to provide relief to the flood affected families through infrastructure and restoration work. The MPs reminded PM that the Chief Minister of the State Smt. Vasundhra Raje had met him personally on 12-2-07 to urge for an expeditious decision on state's proposal. The MPs regretted that the centre, upto last month, has approved an assistance of only Rs 240 crore as against the demand of Rs 3284 crore. The MPs said that the norms for assistance from CRF and NCCF, prescribed in the year 2000 have become outdated and were to be revised in the year 2005. They said although the committee constituted to suggest revision in norms had submitted its report a year back, the govt. of India has yet to take a decision on revising them. The MPs argued that the delay in revision of norms in affecting the interests of hailstorm affected farmers adversely. The earlier norms prescribe a meager assistance of only Rs 1000 per hectare for unirrigated land and Rs.2000 for irrigated land for input subsidy. The MPs claimed that the actual cost of cultivation is much higher, around Rs 8000-10,000 per hectare. Had recommendations of the committee been implemented, the farmers would have got Rs 3000 per hectare for unirrigated lands and Rs. 7000 hectare for irrigated land. The delegation urged PM to implement the recommendation of committee at earliest and suggested to remove the assistance limit of 2 hectare per farmer so that they could get some modicum of assistance as the farmer suffer heavy loss due to natural calamities and their livelihood in lost severely. The MPs, raising the issue of electricity in this regards told PM that the electricity is a major cost in a Rabi crop, with an expenditure on electricity being Rs. 15,000-20,000 per farmer. The MPs strongly demanded that the expenditure incurred on electricity must be treated as input cost assistance from the CRF, NCCF provided.