CUTTACK: Five months have passed since Cyclone Jawad broke the backbone of the farmers by damaging their standing kharif paddy in coastal districts, but the affected farmers of Cuttack district are yet to get any financial aid for their loss.
As per the assessment conducted jointly by officials of the Agriculture department and local tehsil, out of 14 blocks in the district, 11 were severely affected by the cyclone which had triggered heavy rainfall during the first week of December.
After a survey, the district agriculture office had submitted a report stating that standing kharif crops on 42,339 hectares of land were completely damaged due to waterlogging. Accordingly, block level agriculture officials were instructed to prepare the list of affected farmers for disbursement of financial aid announced by the Chief Minister to compensate their loss.
Sources said the block level agriculture officials are delaying preparation of the list of affected farmers for which they are yet be compensated. Chief District Agriculture Officer, Niranjan Das who admitted the delay, however, attributed it to shortage of manpower. They are managing data entry with a single computer at the block level agriculture office, he added.
“While the list of affected farmers of three blocks - Cuttack Sadar, Mahanga and Tangi-Choudwar - has already been completed, efforts are on to prepare the list in the rest 8 blocks within a week,” said Das.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced a special package of Rs 507 crore for farmers affected by Cyclone Jawad. As per the provisions of the package, small and marginal farmers who lost 33 per cent of their crops would be given Rs 6,800 per hectare of rain-fed land, 13,500 per hectare for irrigated areas.