BENGALURU: In a classic example of how farmers are suffering due to the utter negligence of successive governments, the farmers in Kalaburagi district were waiting for more than a decade to get compensation for the loss of black gram crops due to the supply of substandard seeds by the Agriculture Department through the Karnataka State Seeds Corporation (KSCL).
Now, with the intervention of the Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (KSCDRC), around 50 farmers are getting compensation of Rs 5,000 per acre as declared by the District Consumer Commission on May 30, 2012, as against Rs 1,500 announced by the Commissioner of Agriculture. “We also agree with the order passed by the District Commission, because the farmers are the backbone of Indian society and agriculture is their main occupation.
They contribute some percentage to the country’s economy. If we resolve the farmers’ problem, our country will be prosperous,” said KSCDRC comprising Ravi Shankar, Judicial Member, and Sunita C Bagewadi, Member, while dismissing the appeals filed by the Department of Agriculture and Karnataka State Seeds Corporation in 2012 challenging the order of the District Commission.
As per the demand of the Commissioner of Agriculture, the KSCL supplied black gram seeds to the farmers residing at Madeyal village of Aland taluk in Kalaburagi district with 50 per cent subsidy during kharif season in 2010, after procuring it from four different companies.
The normal height of the black gram plants is about 1-2 feet, but the height of the plants grown in their lands was more than 3 feet and there was no flower seed and most of the crop became barren.
The farmers were shocked and immediately approached the authorities for compensation for the loss of the crops, but their demands did not yield any result. Thereafter, they approached the Deputy Commissioner (DC) on September 21, 2010, with a request to take action against authorities. After the then chief minister asked him to look into the matter, the DC directed the agriculture department to take steps to provide compensation.