CUTTACK: Even though the last date to register for crop insurance under PM Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is scheduled to end on Thursday, farmers of newly-formed revenue villages in Cuttack district have not been able to get their names registered, thanks to the alleged apathy of the revenue officials in uploading the names of the said villages on the portal.
Last year too, farmers of these villages had faced the same issue. “Two years have passed but the revenue officials have not yet uploaded names of the gram panchayats and revenue villages on the portal. With the last date for crop insurance registration being July 31 (Thursday), we have been running from pillar to post to sort the issue but to no avail,” said farmers of Patasura village in Katikata GP under Nischintakoili block.
They alleged that they had earlier taken the matter to the additional district magistrate (ADM-Revenue) Dibyalochan Mohanta but the latter said the tehsildars concerned had already been asked to sort the problem by contacting the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
“We also apprised the Nischintakoili tehsildar Damayanti Sahoo of our plight but she has only been giving false assurances of solving it. We undertook kharif cultivation by incurring huge expenditure. If in any case, our crops get damaged due to natural calamities, who will be held responsible?” they questioned.
Farmers alleged that though their villages had been accorded revenue village status over three years back, they are yet to avail new record of rights (RoR) as a result of which they are facing many problems. This is not an isolated case of Patasura village alone. If sources are to be believed, a minimum of 15,000 farmers across 20 villages under 15 tehsils are yet to get their names registered.
Efforts to elicit response from ADM Mohanta and Nischintakoili tehsildar Damayanti Sahoo proved futile.