ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: An amount of Rs915 million has been sanctioned for disbursement among farmers of Bahawalnagar where crops were damaged because of troops movement during the military standoff between Pakistan and India, Minister of State of Health Hamid Yar Hiraj tells the Senate.

He said this while replying on behalf of the defence minister on Thursday.

But senators criticized the delay in the disbursement of funds among farmers. These farmers were not allowed to harvest their crops during 2001 because of the tension between Pakistan and India as their lands remained in the use for defence purposes. Later during 2002-03, they were not allowed to cultivate crops also because of the emergency situation.

The minister of state informed the upper house that President Pervez Musharraf had already issued directives for the disbursement of the amount among the farmers and the matter was now awaiting approval in the finance ministry.

It was for the first time that a decision was taken to compensate farmers for their losses because of the war-like situation, he observed.

Mr Hiraj had to face a barrage of supplementary questions because the senators appeared to be dissatisfied and kept asking about the cause of the delay in the disbursement of funds. They complained that farmers were being harassed and even detained for not paying the Abyana (agriculture tax).

Mr Hiraj suggested them (senators) to direct their queries to the finance ministry.

Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz was not present in the house at the time but later came to inform the house that the finance ministry had already approved the amount of Rs915 million, adding that the defence ministry had informed the (finance) ministry that it was collecting details of damages from the army formations.