ROURKELA: Farmers of the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district continue to be deprived of crop insurance claims under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) for loss incurred during kharif 2022. Standing with the farmers, Talsara MLA Bhawani Shankar Bhoi expressed resentment on the matter.
Bhoi had drawn attention of the Agriculture & Farmer Empowerment Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain on July 4 stating that he would take up the issue in the monsoon session of the Assembly if the farmers do not get their due.
Crop insurance claims of 2022 were settled for all districts in Odisha except Sundargarh. Sources said in the kharif season 2022, a total of 6,66,040 farmers including 4,23,936 loanee farmers were covered under the PMFBY against total premium of about `11.93 crore with total insured area at 87,175.64 ha. It is learnt, some affected farmers of Kutra block on Monday also raised the issue during the public grievance meeting.
Talking to this paper Bhoi said, “Despite grass-roots verification for crop loss of farmers in his assembly constituency and rest of Sundargarh district, they are yet to be compensated.”
While chief district agriculture officer JB Mohapatra is on leave, a senior officer on condition of anonymity said, after failing its commitment to settle pending crop insurance claims last week the concerned officials of the private insurance company on Monday assured to settle claims by July 30.