Bargarh: Stepping up protests over cancellation of insurance claims of farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana by private firms on various pretexts, hundreds of farmers staged a demonstration outside the district collectorate here on the issue, Wednesday.
The farmers under the aegis of Raja Bodasambar Krushak Sangathan led by Ashok Sahu, Ramesh Mohapatra and Ajit Satapathy came in a bike rally and staged protests outside the collectorate.
However, no officials met the farmers even though the latter continued with their demonstration till 4pm. Later, some farmers managed to sneak inside the collectorate and dumped their memorandum outside the Collector’s chamber.
They warned of intensifying their agitation in front of the sub-collector’s office at Padmapur from December 27. Hundreds of farmers travelled over 80 km from Padmapur on bikes and assembled outside the district collectorate.
Apprehending law and order situation, police closed down the main gate of the collectorate before the arrival of the agitating farmers.
The farmers demanded that their applications for insurance claims which have been rejected on flimsy grounds by the insurance firms must be accepted.
They sought payments for 1,200 farmers who were deprived of Kharif insurance claims of last year, to make the crop cutting report of last rabi crops public and to stop arbitrary functioning of insurance companies during the crop cutting season.
They said the last date of filing insurance claims was fixed on December 31, but the insurance firms had stopped receiving applications from December 15.
The farmers said that the Centre has implemented the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to make good of the crop loss suffered by them during calamities.
PNN
