BARGARH : Traffic came to a standstill on National Highway 6 on Tuesday after hundreds of farmers staged road blockade at Dusmile in Sohela over disbursement of insurance claims under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for paddy crop loss during kharif, 2017.The agitating farmers, under the banner of Jai Kisan Andolan, blocked the NH, which connects Kolkata with Mumbai, for more than seven hours.
Farmer leader Hara Bania said the National Insurance Company, which had insured paddy crops in the district, is adopting a lackadaisical attitude in disbursing claims to the affected farmers.The company was supposed to provide `735 crore as insurance claims to farmers. However, it has released only `144 crore meant for farmers of 65 gram panchayats. There are a total of 258 panchayats in the district, Bania said.
Many farmers have received less amount compared to their actual crop loss. Moreover, names of several farmers have been excluded from the beneficiary list prepared by the insurance company, he rued. The farmers’ body has the crop cutting report of each gram panchayat of the district, Bania claimed and added that they resorted to agitation demanding disbursement of insurance claims basing on the crop cutting report. The Government had assured that all farmers of the district would get their insurance claims by June 30. However, majority of the farmers are yet to the get their dues, he added.
Hundreds of vehicles were seen stranded on both sides of the highway due to the road blockade. Bargarh Sub-Collector Debendra Nanda and Sohela Tehasildar Biswaranjan Kar rushed to the spot to pacify the protestors. However, the agitating farmers refused to budge from their stand. Later, police took 13 farmers into preventive custody at around 5.30 pm in the evening following which smooth vehicular movement was restored on the busy highway.