Hundreds of farmers at Mortice, Karamat, and surrounding communities in the Mahaicony Creek, Region Five, benefitted from $233 million in the government’s flood relief cash grant.
The disbursement was spearheaded by Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat.
Minister Bharrat said the loss suffered by farmers was witnessed first-hand by government. He said the Administration is providing support for farmers because they care.
“Today we know that the assistance that we are going to give to you is not to compensate you for all your losses. It is difficult to compensate you for all your losses because we know that you lost a lot, but today, we are assisting you as a government, we are assisting you to return to somewhat of a normal life, we are assisting you to return to farming,” the minister said.
The minister also called on persons to be honest with their claims of loss. He said the dishonest practice of some has reached the ears of the government.
“We need to be honest because when you are not honest, it means that you are depriving other people of getting assistance, that is what is happening. And we know that if a man loses two cows, he will say 20 died. If he had 20 chickens, he will say 100 chickens died… I know how hard it is but all we are asking is for you to be honest with us. If it is 20 acres rice, tell we it is 20 acres rice and do not bring the wife, the son and daughter to register for the same 20 acres rice,” Minister Bharrat stated.
The flood relief cash grant is government’s way of supporting farmers who suffered losses in the recent national disaster. Over $7 billion was set aside for this initiative. (Extracted and modified from the Department of Public Information)
