The office of the Joint Director, Agriculture, here on Monday witnessed high drama as farmers from Kundgol taluk picketed it and also locked the office in protest against the delay in releasing crop insurance money under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY).
The farmers, who came in a group, entered the Agriculture Department office, staged a protest dharna and later locked the premises. The farmers who came from Hiregunjal, Chikkagunjal and Bagawad villages participated in the protest.
The farmers said that the crop insurance money for the rabi season of 2016-17 and kharif season of 2017-18 have not been released. A large number of farmers who had grown jowar, Bengal gram and oilseeds had enrolled for crop insurance. While farmers from neighbouring villages in the taluk have received crop insurance money, none of the farmers from Hiregunjal has received any insurance money. While all other gram panchayats in the taluk received the insurance amount a fortnight ago, Hiregunjal has been left out.
When the matter was brought to the notice of the officials, they said that there are some technical glitches and would be solved soon. For the last 15 days, the farmers are going from one department to another seeking speedy disbursement of crop insurance money, but none of the officials have tried to solve it.
The Agriculture Joint Director too had assured of remitting the money into the bank accounts of the farmers, but he too failed to keep his promise. As the officials are showing apathy, they have been forced to picket the office and stage the dharna, they said.
The farmers said that a week ago some of the gram panchayats even received the crop insurance for 2017-18 kharif season, but Hiregunjal has been totally neglected. Delay in release of crop insurance has landed them in trouble.
Published - July 24, 2018 12:51 am IST
