DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal today demanded immediate release of compensation at the rate of Rs 50,000 per cattle head to dairy farmers whose milch animals had fallen prey to lumpy skin disease, even as he asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann to take responsibility for controlling the spread of the disease instead of passing on the buck to village panchayats. In a statement here, the SAD president expressed shock that even as thousands of cattle had fallen prey to lumpy skin disease since July; the AAP government was still indulging in propaganda and advertisements. "No effort is being made to take concrete steps at the ground level by coming to the aid of dairy farmers by compensating them for their cattle loss as well as preventing the further spread of the disease". Mr Sukhbir Badal said while there were reports of nearly 40,000 cattle perishing to the disease, the government was yet to come up with an exact count. "Farmers have lost between Rs 75,000 to Rs 1.25 lakh per milch animal to this killer disease which has crippled the dairy sector and is set to result in a setback to the State's push to diversification of farmer income. Despite this the government has not released any compensation to dairy farmers". Mr Badal also expressed that the government was not releasing money to the Animal Husbandry department to tackle the spread of the disease. "A report has come in from Muktsar stating that in the absence of any funds being received from the Animal Husbandry department, the district administration has asked village panchayats to provide money for purchasing medicines to tackle lumpy skin disease". He said it was mind-boggling that the government had spent Rs 37 crore in advertisements in two months alone but was finding it difficult to release a few crore for purchase of medicines to tackle the disease. Speaking about the dairy sector, Mr Badal said the sincerity of the AAP government towards this sector as well as farmers in general could be gauged from the fact that it had failed to implement the commitment made in the Vidhan Sabha that MILKFED would increase the procurement price of milk by Rs 55 per kilogram fat and absorb a cost of Rs 20 per kg fat to ensure the common man was not affected. "This duplicitous attitude towards farmers is responsible for pushing the entire sector into a crisis" Mr Badal said adding earlier the chief minister had encouraged farmers to sow Moong and promised to procure it a minimum support price of Rs 7,225 per quintal but reneged on his promise. "Only ten per cent of the total Moong sown by farmers was procured", Mr Badal said adding that farmers were yet to be paid compensation for the damage caused to their standing paddy crop as well as Kinnow orchards in the rains last month. (editor@dailyworld.in)