Fadnavis raps officials over ‘apathy’ towards farmers

The CM also took a dig at officials for not ensuring complete benefit of the loan waiver and agriculture credit to farmers.

Chief minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis on Friday cracked the whip on state revenue and agriculture department officials for their “apathy” towards farmers.

Fadnavis, who held a review meeting of the kharif season in a suburban hotel, said that crop assessment was being done without visiting fields (SunnyShende/HTPhoto)

Fadnavis, who held a review meeting of the kharif season in a suburban hotel, said that crop assessment was being done without visiting fields, leading to errors in crop estimates and insurance compensation pay outs.

The CM also took a dig at officials for not ensuring complete benefit of the loan waiver and agriculture credit to farmers. He also directed government officials, including district collectors and joint directors of the agriculture commissionerate, to use “whatever means you want” against errant banks not willing to disburse loans to farmers to ensure maximum credit target is achieved. He directed departments to ensure that farmers get maximum compensation from crop insurance.

The state faces Assembly polls in October on the back of a drought and delayed monsoon this year. The BJP-led government has a strong base in urban areas, but feels it could face some challenges in rural areas due to the ongoing agrarian crisis. The government wants to make sure all its schemes targeted towards farmers reach them, said a senior official.

Fadnavis also raised questions over fewer farmers getting the benefit of the PM-Kisan scheme. “We have 1.20 crore beneficiaries of the scheme that promises income support of ₹6,000 a year,. Why have only 30 lakh accounts been verified so far and not even all of them have got the benefit,’’ he said.

He also pointed out that in the districts where the top officials have taken keen interests, the percentage of the disbursement of the loan is better. “Take action against the banks if they are not adhering to targets set for the loans. Resort to whichever level of action you want, but we want results in the kharif season,” he told officials.

The CM also asked senior officials to keep track of field-level officers by developing a mechanism to ensure that they go to farmers and submit real-time ground reports. It is alleged that wrong reports by ground-level agriculture officers about the sowing and crop cutting lead to misleading data, resulting in changes in pay out of insurance.

“It is true that some of the reports of the crop-cutting experiments, on which the crop-insurance compensation is determined, went wrong. We have compensated farmers taking into account such errors at the ground level,” said Fadnavis, in a press conference held after the review.

Fadnavis said on the basis of the predictions by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the monsoon is expected to be satisfactory and the farmers have opportunity for a record-breaking production. “Three of the four consecutive seasons have failed. But despite only 73 % of the average rainfall, we could get record production of 115 lakh metric tonnes of crops. This was possible because of improved irrigation and water conservation schemes like Jal Yukt Shivar.’’

The CM informed that this year, rainfall in Marathwada is predicted to be 89 to 111% of the average, while in Vidarbha and Central Maharashtra, it is expected to be 92 to 108 and 93 to 107%.

The government, he added, had sent out as many as five crore text advisory messages to farmers about the delayed rains, asking them to defer sowing. Fadnavis said the government would weed out technical issues that have deprived farmers from the benefits of the farm-loan waiver. He said instead of blanket-loan waiver, the government will bring maximum farmers into the institutional-credit system. The meeting was attended by ministers, divisional commissioners and top officials from the agriculture and revenue department.