The State Congress on Thursday said it would take to the street across the State if all farmers, who had deposited premium under the Crop loss Insurance scheme, are not paid compensation for the crops damaged due to drought in a month’s time.
Addressing a Press conference here, PCC president Prasad Harichandhan and Congress Farmer Cell State president Amiya Kumar Pattanayak alleged that due to inefficiency of the Naveen Patnaik Government as many 21,52,590 farmers have not got insurance money against crops lost in 2015 drought.
“Despite losses, 21,52,590 farmers of the State had deposited Rs 180,81,46,000 towards premium under the Union Government’s Crop Insurance scheme. But they are yet to get insurance money as the inefficient Naveen Patnaik Government is yet to submit gram panchayat wise crop loss report even after 18 months since drought hit the State,” alleged Harichandan.
Similarly, Harichandan alleged that the nationalised and cooperative banks have not provided 30 per cent of the targeted 29,000 crore and 6000 crore, respectievely, to farmers. Both the NDA Government at the Centre and the Naveen Patnaik Government are responsible for this, he alleged.
The PCC president demanded that the drought-affected farmers be paid insurance money soon and registration period for Crop Insurance registration be extended from August 15 till August 31.
They too demanded that other crops like paddy, groundnut, ginger ,turmeric, potato , betel, alasi, harad, maize, banana, jute, mustard, moong and all vegetables be included in the Crop Insurance scheme.