BENGALURU: With the onset of monsoon in Karnataka, farmers might be rejoicing as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted good rain for this year. But what may come as a shock to many is the serious crisis being faced by the State Agriculture Department. The department is facing an acute staff shortage with less than 50 per cent employees working. This has negatively impacted the functioning of the department and the affected parties are mostly the beneficiaries and farmers who haven’t received benefits.
The sanctioned staff strength of the department from different cadres is 9,007 posts, of which only 4,020 posts have been filled. This means there are only 44 per cent of staffers working in the department. Of them, Group B and Group C play important roles and most of the vacant posts are from these two cadres. In Group B cadre, of the 4,091 sanctioned posts, only 1,781 are filled.
The State government’s move to recruit 300 people is hardly making a difference as it is way less than the actual required strength. In Karnataka, there are close to 750 Raitha Samparka Kendras (RSK), with at least one each at Hobli level. Each RSK should have an assistant agriculture officer and agriculture assistant who are crucial in reaching out to the end beneficiary in villages.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in his maiden budget speech had announced allotment of `33,700 crore for agriculture and allied sectors with an aim to increase incomes of farmers. He had also announced Raitha Shakti scheme by allotting Rs 500 crore to encourage the use of farm machinery.
‘Farming schemes not reaching beneficiaries’
The CM had even sanctioned diesel subsidy of Rs 250 per acre for small time farmers.
A senior government official, on condition of anonymity, told TNSE, “There are many farming related schemes that will benefit a large number of farmers and their family members. Government officials at the ground level are the ones who play an important role in reaching out to the beneficiaries at villages including providing fertilizer subsidies. With staff crunch, how can one expect us to meet deadlines.’’
Recently, the Department of Agriculture sent a proposal to hire 3,000 diploma graduates from agriculture universities as agriculture assistants, one person for two panchayats, but the finance department shot down the proposal citing additional financial burden to the exchequer as the reason. “We need people to reach out to farmers to create awareness about low standard seeds, help them to double their incomes, create awareness on soil conservation and take forward many more initiatives. We do not have people at RSKs which results in a large number of population getting neglected,” said another official.