The issues pertaining to non-receipt of crop insurance benefits by a majority of farmers triggered hot debates in the general body meeting of the Anantapur Zilla Parishad here on Thursday.
Zilla Parishad Chairperson Boya Girijamma presided over the proceedings.
As the meeting began at 10.30 a.m., the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) members raised the issues, saying that they were facing the ire of farmers who were yet to receive the compensation amounts for various reasons.
Joint Director Agriculture Sivanarayana said that farmers from 18 of the total 32 mandals in Sri Sathya Sai District had not received the insurance compensations for groundnut crops which bore the brunt of excess rains during the 2021 kharif season.
Alleging loopholes in in insurance compensation payment system, Kadiri MLA P.V. Siddha Reddy suggested that State government should ask the insurance companies to modify the system from weather-based system to yield-based system. “In the past, several rules were amended to suit the unique conditions prevailing in certain areas,” Mr. Siddha Reddy argued.
Hindupur MP Gorantla Madhav stressed the need for creating more awareness among the farmers on e-cropping and e-KYC systems. A majority of farmers did not receive the compensation as either the agriculture or revenue officials had failed to do the e-crop booking in time or the farmers had not fulfilled their e-KYC requirement, he pointed out.
Groundnut farmers in seven mandals in Anantapur district have not received compensations for 2021 kharif season, Joint Director B. Chandra Naik said.
Lepakshi ZPTC member said that the sericulture farmers did not receive compensations. However, the officials said that the farmers were not eligible as it was a “non-notified” crop.
Collector Nagalakshmi Selvarajan said that only those who had completed their e-KYC and e-crop booking during the last season, but did not receive compensation, could lodge a complaint in the e-KYC portal while doing e-crop booking for the current kharif season.
The other topics that were discussed including delay in HLC and HNSS canal works in Sri Sathya Sai district. Collector P. Basant Kumar said that out of 111 tenders floated for the works, bids were received only for only one project.
The members wanted works below ₹10 lakh given on a nomination basis. The Collector said only when there was no response for three consecutive times for a particular work, it could be given on a nomination basis.
