More than 200 farmers in several villages of Rewa district have been denied compensation for betel plants that were damaged in hailstorms last month, as the district administration has refused to accept damage to the plants.
Rewa Collector SM Rupla told The Pioneer that the hailstorms were mild in the district due to which much damage has not been done to the standing crops.
“Only 20 villages in Gurh block and nearly 40 in Rewa block were affected by the hailstorm. The damage is more in the neighbouring districts. Besides, the betel plants are covered by bamboo sheds. So, it escaped the damage and the question of compensation does not arise at all,” he remarked.
However, the official view is contradicted by the local farmers. Ram Singh Chourasia, a farmer of Bheeti village in Raipur Karchuliyan tehsil of the district informed on Thursday that large tracts of betel plantations were completely destroyed due to hailstorm, but the officials have not even surveyed betel fields.
“Almost all the betel-plants that I had cultivated in nearly half acre land were destroyed in the heavy rains and hailstorm that struck the area in March. However, a couple of days later, when the officials came to survey the area for assessing damage to the crops, they ignored the betel cultivations,” Chourasia said.
“The official team consisted of the Collector, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, tehsildar and the patwari of this area. They assessed damage to wheat, gram, pea, and onion crops but ignored the betel plantations. When some of the farmers including myself asked the officials to take account of the betel crops they said that it does not qualifies the criteria for receiving compensation.”
“I cannot understand how the betel plants did not come under the compensation criteriaIJ The barejas (bamboo structures to support betel plants) were broken due to hailstorm damaging the plants under it. Even if few plants have survived, the leaves are damaged making it useless for sale in the market,” he told.
He informed that a similar damage is caused in adjoining villages including Patauta, Mahakaun, Badi Gurgi, Chhoti Gurgi and other villages in Rewa, Gurh and Raipur blocks affecting more than 200 farmers.
He also claimed that legislator and Public Works Minister Nagendra Singh also visited the area and even called the district officials to provide compensation to betel cultivators. But still nothing has been done on this matter, he said.
The Collector, however, said that no representation from any public representative called him on in this matter. “We have already distributed Rs 1.4 crore to the farmers as compensation. The damage has been mostly to wheat and gram crops. I personally visited the affected areas. No damage to betel cultivation has been seen,” he said.
Besides, the distribution of compensations has been also questioned by some local human rights organisations. Ram Naresh of Samaj Chetna Adhikar Manch informed that large scale irregularities have been done in distributing the compensations.
“Big farmers and several others who sufferer lesser loss or no loss at all, have been given huge sum while, small farmers have been ignored,” he said.