Padmapur: Farmers in the district are a distressed lot. Prolonged non-payment of their insurance money has pushed them to the wall. Infuriated, farmers laid seize to sub-collector’s office here in Bargarh district. Thousands of farmers squatted in front of the office and did not allow officers to enter office Wednesday.
The road leading to the sub-collector’s office was chock-a-block as farmers under the aegis of Raja Bodasambar Krushak Sangathan and led by their leader Banchhanidhi Nayak staged a sit-in in front of the office and prevented employees from entering the office.
The agitation comes a day after farmers in Sambalpur similarly gheraoed the District Collector’s office over non-settlement of insurance claims and payment of input subsidy.
Farmer leaders Utpana Kumar Bhoi, Sushil Sahu, Ramesh Mohapatra, Hara Bania, Ashok Sahu, Rohit Pradhan and others spoke on the occasion and blamed the delay in claim settlement on the alleged bonhomie between the administration and the insurance firms.
The farmer leaders claimed that Padmapur sub-division is a drought-prone region but the administration and the insurance firms are not at all concerned about their plight in settling their insurance claims.
The farmers also paralysed work in the residential office of Sub-Collector Tanmaya Kumar Darwan by gheraoing it from outside.
As a result, the office came to a standstill as not a single employee including the sub-collector could enter the office.
The agitating farmers vented their ire over the dilly-dallying attitude of the Oriental Insurance Company in settling their 2018 claims of their crop insurance.
They rejected the administration’s report on insurance which they claimed to be a ploy to hoodwink them.
The agitation got a boost as famers from Paschim Odisha Krushak Sangathan, Jay Kishan Sangathan participated in their stir and extended their support to their demands.
Observers claimed the agitation by farmers is intensifying day by day with various outfits joining their stir and extending them support.
The sub-collector tried to contact the insurance firm but the farmers refused to believe him.
They relented after the sub-collector assured to look into their demands by July 25. However, the agitating farmers warned to intensify their agitation if they do not receive their insurance money within that period.
Farmers from Jharbandh, Paikamal, Padampur, Bheden, Bijepur and Sohela areas in the district participated in the stir.
PNN
