Sambalpur: The 37-day-long agitation by farmers at Jamankira demanding input subsidy and crop insurance among other things ended Saturday, but no official came to them to even listen to their problems.
The lackadaisical attitude of the administration towards the farmers’ problems has irked the farming community. The sit-in stir that started March 23 to attract official attention to the farmers’ woes may not have yielded the desired result but gained a lot of public support and sympathy.
The farmers have declared that since there has been no response either from the administration or the government to their prolonged agitation on their pressing demands, they will start the next phase of their movement – relay hunger strike – from May 3.
The farmers are agitated over non-implementation of relief measures, regional farmers’ outfit Pashchim Odisha Krushak Samnabayak Samiti convenor Ashok Pradhan said.
He said the government has already announced input subsidy and relief through crop insurance to bail out farmers from the current crisis, but these are yet to percolate to the grassroots level.
Brown plant hopper (BHP pest) attack on crops, severe drought in non-irrigated areas and crop loss have added to the woes of farmers and compelled some of them to commit suicide even during last Kharif season, Pradhan claimed. The current crop season is also facing pest attacks.
He alleged though the state government had announced lucrative relief measures, none of them had been implemented even after six months. Speaking on relief measures announced, Pradhan said the affected farmers ought to get drought relief at the rate of Rs 13,500 per acre in the irrigated sector and Rs 6,800 per acre in the non-irrigated sector. But the amount of compensation given was so meagre that some affected farmers had refused to accept it.
Pradhan said farmers are supposed to get insurance compensation within 45 days but they are still to get it even after two months. So, farmers are left with no option but to agitate against the injustice meted out to them, he added.
He clarified that Jamankira block is the worst affected among all nine blocks in the district, so most of the farmers of all 21 panchayats of the block are actively participating in the agitation.
