Urges govt to frame agri insurance policy, provide adequate fertilises to farmers, stop frequent power cuts in rural areas
Monsoon session of Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha
Raipur, July 17, 2012
Congress has demanded radical facilities for farmers in terms of agriculture insurance, loans, fertilisers, seeds, pesticides and uninterrupted power supply for irrigation. The opposition members put this demand while debating on matter of urgent public importance under rule 139 during the state Assembly’s monsoon session on Tuesday. The BJP and BSP members also expressed their opinion in the debate.
The monsoon has been dry by far and so has been the attitude of the government in addressing the problems and basic demanded of the farmers,” said leader of the opposition Ravindra Choubey.
“The government constituted 48 new tehsils in 2008, but did not fill insurance forms of the farmers of those tehsils despite taking premium from them. This kept the eligible farmers deprived of their insurance claims,” he added.
He advised Agriculture Minister Chandrashekhar Sahu to convene a review meeting of his departmental officials and frame an effective agriculture insurance policy so that the farmers may get its benefit.
“The government must also check monopolisation of fertilisers. The mismanagement of fertiliser transportation is one of the major reasons for its black marketing. Therefore, the condition like artificial scarcity of fertilisers creates in societies and farmers are compelled to buy fertilisers at higher rates from open market,” he said.
“The farmers are also irked of frequent power cuts and it is happening despite the CM’s assurance in the House. The nurseries are dying and the farmers are unable to irrigate their field due to six hour power cut in rural pockets. The government is surely responsible for the farmers’ woes,” he said.
Reminding the Agriculture Minister that he had declared earlier in the House to make a law to protect agricultural lands by not being sold to the industrialists, Choubey asked whether the minister had forgotten about it or had put the idea in the backburner. “You had even announced to give special status to Janjgir-Champa district, but over one lakh acres of lands agricultural lands had been sold by far while the government had also signed pact with the industrialists to sell them water. Farmers in Janjgir too are waiting for the law to come into existence,” he said.
Agri, Energy, Coop depts must coordinate
Congress MLA Dharmjeet Singh advised Agriculture, Energy and Cooperative departments to coordinate with each other so that farmers may not face problems in cultivating crops. He said the state would become weak if the farmers would be weak.
He said it was surprising that duplicate fertiliser manufacturer was caught in Chief Minister’s Assembly constituency Rajnandgaon. “However, this is certainly not the only one of its type in the state. One such factory exists in Bilaspur. Interestingly, the owner manufactures duplicate fertilisers overtly despite knowledge of the relevant government officials,” he said.
He pointed that the black marketing of the fertilisers had increased due to people like Devendra Pandey, the chairman of Sewa Sahkari Samitis.
“Pandey has created terror among the farmers and societies and make open demand of commission. Even complaint has been lodged against him with the police but the government is not taking action against him,” he said.
“Along with power cuts, power failure due to malfunctioning transformers is another big hurdle in farming. Power supply remains disconnected in several villages because the malfunctioning transformers are neither repaired quickly nor being replaced timely,” he added. He also asked the minister to take initiative to start a fertiliser factory in the state.
Let power cut be in industries for 3 months
BJP legislator Devji Bhai Patel suggested that the power cut should be done in industries for three months instead of rural area so that farmers could get adequate electricity for agricultural purpose.
Fix agri insurance at panchayat level
Congress MLA Agni Chandra said that the government should fix agricultural insurance at panchayat or patwari halka level.
He further said that black marketing of fertilisers would only be curbed when societies would receive sufficient amount of fertiliser and the farmers would be allowed to purchase it in cash.
Besides, he pointed that the cult of fake loan from societies had developed in the rural areas on the name of farmers.
“This trend should be checked by taking action against the guilty people as many farmers have been declared as defaulter by the societies while they had not taken any loan,” he said.
Give 75% fertiliser to societies
Congress MLA Dr Shakrajeet Nayak said the government should provide 75% of fertilisers to the societies and remaining 25% to the private businessmen. “This will not only ensure adequate availability of fertilisers for farmers but would also check black marketing of fertilisers,” he said.
He said the government should stop frequent power cuts in the rural areas. “Still there is five hour of declared power cut and four hour of undeclared power cut in villages,” he indicated.
The other members who participated in the debate were Paresh Bagbahra, Pratima Chandrakar, Hridayram Rathiya (all Congress), Domanlal Korsewada, Phoolchand Singh, Raju Kshatriya, Dr Subhau Kashyap (all BJP), Saurabh Singh, Doojram Boudh (both BSP).
In Box
When Paresh sat on dharna before Agri Min
Congress MLA Paresh Bagbahra sat on dharna before Agriculture Minister Chandrashekhar Sahu’s seat during the latter address. Bagbahra was demanding compensation in terms of insurance claim for the farmers of his constituency.
Earlier, while starting the debate, he mentioned that the farmers of his constituency did not get compensation claim despite having agriculture insurance due to formation of 48 new tehsils in 2008. He persistently asked the minister to announce compensation package for the farmers in the House. Meanwhile Congress MLAs Dharmjeet Singh and Amitesh Shukla urged him to resume his seat.
Later, Narayan Chandel, who was on the chair, informed the House that by entering the well for dharna Bagbahra got suspended. However, Chandel said, he cancelled Bagbahra’s suspension immediately. Chandel advised the Congress legislator to control his emotions in the House.
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