The Minister was addressing a debate on a calling attention motion on a related topic. The motion was moved by Opposition members Vyamkappa Patki, Gangadhar Patane and Azahar Hussain. They wanted to know what was the estimated damages to the crops and what action the State Government had initiated to help the troubled farmers.

Different crops - fruits and grains - in 19 out of the 29 districts in the State were damaged more than 50 per cent in February, the minister said. "Apart from this, 10 people died due to lightening and heavy rains. Over 355 cattle and 1,205 sheep and lambs died. Besides, over 2,470 houses in different parts of the State were heavily damaged," Vikhe-Patil said.

The Minister added that the farmers werebeing given financial aid to the extent of Rs 1,000 per hectare of lost crop and the upper limit being fixed at 5 hectares per farmer. He added that Rs 8 crore were already had been released to the district collector to be paid to the farmers. He said that a total of Rs 83,000 were given to the close relatives of 8 out of 10 victims of lightening. While one deceased had no close relatives, the other was a minor and hence the government had not released any help in their cases, he said. The farmers who lost the cattle were given Rs 7.43 lakh as compensation and the owners of damaged houses were given Rs 24.96 lakh as repairing cost.

Earlier, Vyamkappa Patki alleged that the panchnamas of damaged crops were still incomplete in all the districts and those completed had serious lapses. He added that Rs 1,000 per hectare was inadequate and demanded that it should be substantially increased. Other members alleged that the disbursement of money was still incomplete and demanded that the government machinery speedup its work. The Minister replied that the disbursement will be completed by next month.