With the election round the corner, the Agriculture Department in Sundargarh district is working overtime to achieve the target of covering maximum farmers under the Biju Krushak Kalyan Yojana (BKKY).
Against the target of over 2.65 lakh farmer families, the district till recently had covered 1.57 lakh families with around 60 per cent of the target under stream-I and II plans of the health insurance scheme. With a few days remaining, official sources hope that 10 per cent of the remaining farmers are likely to be enrolled. They attributed the delay to paucity of time and resources besides lack of quality manpower with the private smart card vendor.
District Agriculture Officer (DAO) and BKKY nodal officer PC Shaw admitted that the district is expected to end up attaining 70 per cent of the target. He said the enrolment at Nuagaon, Lathikata, Kuanrmunda, Bisra, Bonai and Lahunipara blocks has been done and through 40 locations, remaining 11 blocks are being covered.
Under the stream-I plan, against the target of 83,000, the district covered 68,368 beneficiary farmers of all categories excepting IT assessees who would get health insurance coverage of `1 lakh. Under stream-II, the BPL beneficiaries of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSVY) would get additional health coverage of `70,000 from BKKY, while they are entitled to `30,000 from Central Government.
In stream-II, 89,005 of the 1,82,533 targeted families are covered. After a slow start, there has been a rush among remaining farmers to get enrolled.
Shaw said when the State Government launched BKKY on November 22, the farmers were not very enthusiastic but the momentum picked up later following awareness drives by panchayati raj members, Krushak Sathis and departmental employees. Sources said the software firm entrusted to take photos and finger prints of beneficiaries and provide them smart cards is not well-equipped. It has been reflecting on the final outcome in the vast district spread over 9,712 square km with three sub-divisions. An agriculture officer confided that against the need of 86 laptops, it is working with only 55 and field workers are untrained. However, poor farmers having got BKKY smart cards are not complaining. Dileswar Mahato at Jabapanposh of Bisra block and Debnath Singh at Lukumbera of Nuagaon block said they are now free from worry of healthcare costs.