The Punjab Cabinet decided on Monday to provide Rs 20,000 per acre in compensation to farmers whose fields have been submerged under flood waters and whose crops have been damaged.

The decision was announced by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on social media while he is still recuperating in the hospital. He fell ill last week, reportedly suffering from a bacterial infection, and was admitted to the hospital on September 5.

Standing crops on 4.30 lakh acres of land in Punjab have been damaged in the floods that have ravaged the state for the past three weeks.

While the Disaster Management Rules permit only Rs 6,800 per acre to be given as compensation for crop loss, different state governments, for over a decade, have been giving an additional compensation of Rs 8,200 per acre.

The Council of Ministers in the AAP government has increased this additional compensation, to be given from its own coffers, to Rs 13,200 per acre.

The other important decision taken by the Cabinet is to introduce a new scheme, “Jisda Khet Usdi Ret,” which will allow farmers whose fields have been inundated and where sand and silt have been deposited by the floods to extract the sand and sell it or use it for their own benefit.