Bargarh: Despite the Odisha government and the Centre announcing measures to resolve the issues related to crop insurance claims and input subsidy, the agitating farmers at by-poll bound Padampur assembly seat in Bargarh district have decided to continue their stir which entered its 18th day Friday.
Hundreds of farmers, under the banner of Rajaboda Krushak Sangathan, who were sitting on dharna in front of the sub-collector’s office at Padampur said they do not have faith in the announcements as the community has earlier been “cheated several times” .
“The agitation will continue till the farmers get crop insurance claims and drought input subsidy in their bank accounts,” Sangathan president Banchhanidhi Nayak, conveyor Ashok Sahu and others told reporters at Padampur.
The farmers constitute about 82 per cent of the 2.59 lakh voters in the assembly seat.
Noting that the government announcements had no impact on the farmers, the Sangathan leaders said the cultivators will give a befitting reply to the political parties in the ensuing December 5 by-poll in the Padampur assembly constituency.
“We have been staging the agitation demanding crop insurance claims since September 21 and now in mid-November, just before the by-poll, the Centre announces that the matter has been settled. We have no trust in the announcements. The farmers will call off the stir only after getting the money in their bank accounts. We are not begging, but demanding our insurance claims,” said Ramesh Mohapatra, the farmer leader of the outfit.
“The announcements made by the Central and the state governments simply indicate that the politicians are only interested in votes and nothing else. The farmers had paralysed the functioning of the Padmapur sub-collector’s office for 20 days besides resorting to road and rail blockades. But the government did not listen and suddenly woke up before the elections,” he said.
Claiming that the farmers will be the deciding factor in the ensuing by-poll at Padampur, Mohapatra said that the Sangathan is in no way linked to any political party and will not tell a farmer to vote for a particular camp.
“The farmers are free to cast their votes according to their conscience,” he said.
The Sangathan, he said, wants that there should be no distribution of money, liquor or any kind of malpractice during the by-election.
The farmers’ outfit had ensured that all candidates of the political parties did not file nomination papers for the by-poll till the last date on November 17.
Even the BJP candidate Pradip Purohit was requested to return without filing nomination paper on November 14 when he reached the sub-collectors office to submit his papers.
Purohit also responded and did not file the nomination till the last date.
The farmers have been demanding settlement of their crop insurance under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana since Kharif, 2021 and input subsidy for last year’s drought.
In the face of the farmers’ agitation, Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in a Twitter post said: “In the process of settlement of insurance claims of disputed insurance units in the state of Orissa, in the course of yesterday’s ( Nov 16) conversation with the Union Minister Mr. @dpradhanbjp, the insurance claims to be given by the concerned company in Jharbandha, Padampur, Paikmal blocks of Bargarh district were settled. Has gone.”
Similarly, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on November 15, announced a Rs 200 crore input subsidy for the drought-affected farmers across the state, including those in the Padampur area.
Sangathan leaders, however, say that the drought-hit farmers in Padampur will not get the money as input subsidy as the model code of conduct is in force for the by-poll.
“What prevented the state government to announce the input subsidy for last year’s drought? Had it been done earlier, the farmers would have benefited,” pointed out another farmer leader.
PTI