The Centre has approved a Rs 2,801 crore relief package for hailstorm-affected farmers in Uttar Pradesh. This is the second reprieve for farmers hit by unseasonal rain and storms. In April Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that compensation for crop damage was raised and it will would be easier to claim financial support from the government.


"The amount of compensation has been increased to 1.5 times. If earlier a farmer was getting Rs. 100 as compensation, now he will get Rs. 150, if it was Rs. 1 lakh, he will get Rs. 1.5 lakh... a 50 per cent increase," the prime minister had said.


The Centre's announcement comes hours after Union Minister of Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh's comments today that love affairs and impotency caused the death of more than 1,400 farmers in India this year.