Opposition parties at a press conference here on Saturday announced an action plan for joint agitation from Monday to put the State government in a tight spot over the promised compensation for the groundnut crop loss in Anantapur district during the kharif season due to incessant rains.
Communist Party of India district secretary D. Jagadeesh, TDP Polit Bureau member Kalava Srinivasulu and Congress official spokesperson Golla Nagaraju along with leaders of other parties, said they were perplexed at the way the State government was going about with regard to weather-based insurance and payment of compensation for crop loss.
“As per the State government figures, 12.26 lakh acres of groundnut was sown in Anantapur district, but compensation was being offered only to those who did e-crop booking at the Village Secretariats and premium was paid only for farmers in 4.5 lakh acres. The crop cutting experiments were not done properly and officials just cooked up the figures sitting at their offices,” alleged Mr. Srinivasulu.
Challenge to govt.
A farmer in Nagasamudram of Guntakal mandal has challenged the State government to prove that he had got higher yield and was not eligible for the crop insurance or input subsidy compensation after the crop cutting experiment showed their village having more than the average yield and excluded from the scheme, the TDP leader pointed out.
“If the Village Secretariats were meant to take the administration closer to them and subsidised groundnut seeds were given from there, why were all farmers not registered for the weather-based insurance scheme and the onus put on the farmers to do crop booking,” questioned Mr. Jagadeesh.
The all-party meeting decided to throng the Village Secretariats for three days from Monday with applications for the e-crop booking and compensation and weather-based insurance. If there was no response from the government even then, the JAC members at mandal level would picket the Tahasildar offices seeking justice.
