Govt’s claim of crop seeds hollow, say farmers

The Statesman‎: Bolangir: Monday, September 05, 2016.

The government’s tall claim of providing free-of-cost high quality mung, groundnut, mustard, black gram and sunflower seeds along with pesticides and fertilisers to the drought hit farmers of the district has proved hollow.

Even though the officials of District Agriculture Office (DAO) claims of meeting the requirements of farmers after field visit by the department experts, the truth is something else. Facts came to fore when Sukru Biswal, a small farmer under Agalpur block of the district narrated his ordeal to media persons here.

Sukru Biswal said, “Though I paid several visits to the office of Assistant Agriculture Officer (AAO), what I got in return is one packet of mung dal seed and that too after giving Rs 50 to a clerical staff of the office.”

“However, that did not yield any result, as the season was already over by the time I had received the packet” rued Sukru.

Besides bringing severe allegations against officers concerned. Sukru is a BPL card holder.

He wished to adopt ‘Shree’ method of cultivation in his one acre of land.” My dream was shattered as I did not get any co-operation from officials .It failed utterly, he said.

It may be noted that Agalpur is one of those blocks of Odisha which has reported maximum number of suicidal attempt and death of people belonging to farming community. Harassed and disappointed, Sukru made up his mind to expose the wrong doings of the corrupt officials.

He,then,sought information under Right to Information(RTI) act on tour diary of AAO, number of training he has imparted,list of farmers who were given training among other informations.Though it is mandatory under RTI act to provide the information to a citizen within 30 days from the date of application as Sukru belonged to BPL category, the AAO took one nearly month in forwarding the file to the PIO of DAO, who in turn delayed it further.

When DAO Pradeep Ratha was informed about the allegations of Sukru, Ratha said,“Since providing such information would cost Rs 6000 and the government has not allotted any separate fund in this regard, we are helpless. Our PIO has apprised the State Information Commission and is yet to get any reply.”