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Bhubaneswar, Nov 9: Setting aside controversies over the mode of payment of agriculture input subsidy to the affected farmers on account of crop loss due to pest attack, state government Thursday issued modalities for the payment of the subsidy.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi has issued the modalities and asked all collectors to follow it. In August 2015, the SRC had issued similar modalities to collectors following crop loss due to drought.
Accordingly, any farmer, whose crop was affected by 33 per cent or more, will get the subsidy. The agriculture input subsidy will be provided to actual farmers, including share croppers and lessees based on field enquiry and verification. It means the land owners, who have leased their farm land to sharecropper, will not be eligible for the input subsidy.
Farmers allotted land under the Forest Rights Act will also be provided the subsidy. However, the crops cultivated on encroached government land will not be provided compensation, it said.
“In case of other privileged Rayats like widow and differently-abled persons, etc., agriculture input subsidy shall be paid to the Rayats,” read the letter.
“Government land under unauthorised occupation/encroachment shall not be taken into consideration for enumeration for payment of agriculture input subsidy,” said the SRC.
He further said that all payments of agriculture input subsidy will be made through e-transfer to the bank/postal accounts of beneficiaries.
The government has also directed reconstitution of the village-level committees by including three members from share croppers category to hear objections, if any, on the list of affected farmers prepared by the district collectors and Agriculture department officials on crop loss assessment of individual farmers through visual estimation.
However, the government has not given any instructions with regard to farmers being paid get input subsidy on account of crop failure due to drought as well pest attack.
When asked about the steps taken to ensure there will be no duplicity, the SRC said, “The crop loss due to drought has been already reported and the affected farmers also identified. So, there will be no chance of any duplicity.”
As the crop harvesting operations have not been completed and both drought and pest attack have been reported in many areas, questions are being raised as to why the government has not adopted a mechanism to check it.
Meanwhile, a central team would arrive in Orissa on a four-day visit, starting Friday. The team would review the crop loss status in districts like Nuapara, Balangir, Sonepur, Boudh, Ganjam and Nayagarh.
The team would visit the affected farmlands, said BJP Kisan Morcha’s state secretary Surath Biswal.
