BHAWANIPATNA: Farmers of 28 gram panchayats of Golamunda block in Kalahandi district staged road blockade in Golamunda on Monday protesting non-payment of crop insurance for the last kharif crop season.
Due to lack of rain, they had incurred loss in the last crop season.
Vehicular traffic from Golamunda to Sinapali, Dharamgarh, Junagarh and Bhawanipatna was hit due to the agitation that was called by farmers’ body of the block.
The state head of Royal Sundaram Insurance company - the private insurance firm that had been roped in by the state government for crop insurance - on Monday issued the list of farmers covered under crop insurance scheme and it only had names of farmers of 24 gram panchayats.
The list of beneficiaries of Golamunda, Gandamer, Borguda and Udesring panchayats was not available with the company.
According to the list, 16,657 farmers insured their crops in 2018-19 kharif season and of them, 10,989 are entitled to get insurance based on crop cutting report and average crop yield.
The company claimed that it has transferred the insurance amount of farmers of 24 gram panchayats to their bank accounts.
An agitator, Saul Mangaraj said majority of the farmers of 24 panchayats have not received their compensation money and are ignorant of the amount transferred to their accounts.
Besides, 3,800 farmers of the four panchayats are eligible for compensation but their names have not been included in the last, he claimed.
The agitators said all the 28 panchayats of the block have suffered crop loss and farmers of the four panchayats were the worst hit as per the Agriculture Department’s crop cutting report. Mangaraj said a delegation of farmers will meet the Agriculture Minister and Chief Minister to raise the issue this week.
After the local BDO and Tehsildar interacted with the agitators, the blockade was called off at 2 pm.
CROP LOSS
Majority of the farmers of 24 panchayats have not received their compensation money and are ignorant of the amount transferred to their accounts.
Names of 3,800 affected farmers not in the list.