Officials of the crop insurance firm had tough time at the farmers’ grievance redress meeting held at the Collectorate on Thursday as Collector K. Elambahavath, who chaired the meeting, came down heavily on them for not conducting a proper survey of crop damage caused by the floods in December last and giving trivial sum as insurance benefit.
Raising the issue in the meeting, district secretary of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam P. Bhuviraj said the heavy rain had destroyed the crops completely and the farmers who had insured their crops were getting in phases trivial insurance benefits. Farmers of four revenue villages in Ottapidaaram taluk had received very small amount as insurance benefit.
“It is disappointing. While the flood wiped out the entire crop, the farmers of four revenue villages received very meagre insurance benefit. We suspect that the survey was not done properly,” Mr. Bhuviraj alleged. He was joined by farmers Krishnamurthy and Ravindran.
Upset over this, Mr. Elambahavath asked the insurance firm officials about the survey done in the damaged fields and the mechanism applied for arriving at the quantum of compensation. When the officials could not provide adequate information, the agitated Collector told them that the survey and the quantum of compensation could not be decided by the insurance firm unilaterally.
“You should immediately submit to me all records pertaining to crop damage survey and the compensation disbursed so far. You cannot force the officials to accept your decisions on survey or compensation. You cannot prolong any more the disbursal of crop damage insurance benefits and these wrongdoings should not recur in future,” he said.
When farmer Tamil Mani of Kurumbur appealed to the Collector to ensure the early return of gold ornaments pledged in the Kurumbur Primary Agriculture Cooperative Thrift Society, which had been frozen following the financial irregularity in the society, Mr. Elambahavath told the officials to explore the possibilities of returning the matured deposits and the gold ornaments of the repaid loans instead of waiting for the outcome of the ongoing inquiry.
As Mr. Elambahavath assumed office only on Wednesday, the officials were skeptical about conducting the farmers’ grievance redress meeting within 24 hours as it would not be easy for the Collector to reply to questions from farmers. However, as the Collector, hailing from an agrarian family in Cauvery delta, was keen on conducting the meeting as planned.
“Since I am from a family which is still cultivating paddy, I have experienced the pains of a farmer. I can understand your problems and hence I am open to your suggestions also,” he said.
As the Collector was batting for the farmers’ demands throughout the meeting, the participants were happy, saying the government should allow him to serve the district for the next three years.
When farmer Jothimani of Athimarappatti wanted to have a handbook detailing the welfare schemes meant for farmers and the officials to be approached for with their phone numbers, the Collector asked the Joint Director of Agriculture to prepare in Tamil a comprehensive message explaining lucidly all welfare schemes and get his approval before sharing it with the farmers’ association office-bearers on WhatsApp before August 30.
Additional Collector (Development) R. Aishwarya, District Revenue Officer S. Ajay Srinivasan and Joint Director of Agriculture (in-Charge) Allirani were present.
