Bhubaneswar: Legislators of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday urged Governor S C Jamir to intervene in the state government’s inaction in mitigating the problems of the farmers who are in distress due to drought, pest attack on crop and damage to crop due to unseasonal rains.
In a memorandum to Jamir, the BJP MLAs expressed grave concern over the delay in assessment of crop loss by the government officials and said the farmers in the state are in loss as the state government failed to take advantage of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to compensate farmers in distress
The state government has become a mute spectator and failed miserably to assess the actual crop loss, identify the farmers who have suffered losses and compensate them.
The memorandum said the farmers of the state are face-to-face with triple problem of deficit rainfall induced drought like situation, pest attack and latter serious crop loss due to untimely rain.
The government had committed to complete the crop loss assessment process by November 25 last. However, our field information says the Revenue and Disaster Management department which is primarily responsible to assess the losses has hardly sent its field officials to make on- the- spot assessment in consultation with the farmers.
Under the above circumstance “we apprehend instead of the actual farmers, the government is contemplating to distribute compensation on party line as happened in the past in the issue of selection of beneficiaries under NFSA.”
“It’s again a matter of great concern that the MSP of Rs 1550 as declared by Central government is not being extended to farmers.”
In the name of FAQ the farmers are being denied what they deserve to get. Earlier, the CAG had pointed out huge financial bungling and financial benefits being shared by officer-miller-government nexus, the memorandum said adding that the same thing is happening even now
The BJP MLAs said many states in the country like UP, Rajastahan and Madhya Pradesh have waived farm loans to save the farmers from distress but the Orissa government is avoiding to take the decision despite demands from the opposition parties.
They alleged that the state government has named an irrigation scheme after great poet Gangadhar Meher to cheat the people before Bijepur by-poll without making any budgetary provision in the supplementary budget.
PNN