Odisha Mushroom Growers’ Federation Ganjam unit advisor B Narasingh Rao in a memorandum submitted to the State Chief Minister threatened to sit on dharna here if the Government does not include the Phailin-affected mushroom farmers of Ganjam district in the list of beneficiaries and pay compensation for the loss they suffered due to the cyclone.
Though the mushroom farmers depend on Government assistance, neither the assistance nor the welfare schemes meant for the farmers reach them in time and those who complain become the victim of the eye-shore of the Government officials, he alleged.
On the contrary, the Department of Horticulture plays to the tune of rich farmers and provides them benefits under all the welfare schemes to those who in practice do not resort to actual farming, while deliberately neglecting the actual poor farmers whose livelihood depends on farming, he said.
Notably, under the National Horticultural Mission, crores of rupees are being spent jointly by the State and Central Governments every year, but the Department of Horticulture has failed to maintain a comprehensive, realistic, and classified database of all categories of horticultural farmers engaged in farming of vegetables, flowers, and mushroom etc, separately.
While in some cases, the Government assistance, which remains undelivered to the beneficiaries, is being returned back to the Government, in other cases, the department maintains a list of the beneficiaries only in pen and paper and crores of rupees are being looted from the exchequer, he pointed out.
Rao wanted to know through his RTI application submitted to the Office of the Deputy Director of Horticulture (Ganjam) on May 29 last as to how many mushroom farmers of Ganjam district were affected by the cyclone of October 12, 2013 and identified as the beneficiary of the post-Phailin assistance and how many total mushroom farmers are the beneficiaries of the Government scheme during 2010 to 2013. In response, the office had informed that the number of mushroom cultivator from 2010 to 2013 was not available.
Similarly, it too said that the number of mushroom cultivators affected during the Phailin in Ganjam district was not available. However, it clarified that the Government had provided benefit to 129 beneficiaries in the district.
The response, therefore, clearly confirms that the mushroom farmers deliberately remain unidentified by the Horticulture Department and are deprived from getting legitimate Government assistance. Rao questioned as to why the mushroom farmers were not identified for post-Phailin assistance and demanded stern action against the erring officials.