A page from citizen’s diary- Flood loss compensation in Krishna District
A page from citizen’s diary- Flood loss compensation in Krishna District
Newly
elected young and energetic Chief Minister Sri YS Jaganmohan Reddy brought
administration to people’s doorstep by establishing village secretariat, Rythu
Barosha Kendras and appointed sufficient staff, in addition to village
volunteers ( one volunteer for 50 households) exclusively to ensure government
programs delivery to people. When it
comes to the delivery of welfare programs such as distribution of pensions,
ration etc., its working is satisfactory. In case of livelihood/income
generation issues such as solving land title issues, farm electrification, and
agri business/welfare still long way to go and the administration has to put
their foot on ground and monitor, evolve the program with deliverables and performance
indicators to ensure proper implementation of the program.
Last
week when I was travelling in Krishna dist., lanka villages came to know that
many farmers did not get 2020 khariff flood damage compensation/insurance. Downstream
of Vijayawada Krishna delta has highly fertile islands of about 50000 acres
well known for cultivation banana, yam, turmeric, vegetables etc. These lands
will be submerged if releases from prakasham barrage exceed 7 lakh cusecs. With
pulichintala project execution by YSR Government with 45.5 TMC storage,
everyone thought that with additional storage created Krishna delta will be stabilized
and releases to sea will be minimized. It will be the perfect situation for
downstream lanka lands as they will seldom get huge outflows to submerge the lands.
The
dream was short lived with pattiseema coming into existence, linking Godavari
with Krishna at downstream of pulichintala. Telangana urge for hydal power,
unnecessary pumping of water from pattiseema, often resulting frequent releases
of water into sea. Despite lanka village
peoples request to plan proper water management, so that at any point releases
not to exceed 6 Lakh Cusecs to ensure safety to crops, officials seldom
consider the same.
In
September / October. 2020 the releases to were over 8 Lakh cusecs, resulting in
thousands of acres of land lands submerged for a period of over 10 days,
resulting in huge crop loss. We are happy to acknowledge that this year water
releases were better managed despite more rainfall than last year. Our regular
feeding of data to administration is resulting into some positive actions for
which the credit have to be given to Government.
Government
duly ordered for crop enumeration to estimate crop loss and to facilitate
compensation to farmers. RBKs took active role in completing this activity.
e-crop registration, tenancy card, aadhar link, bank linkage, which was not
taken seriously by farmers earlier, came forward voluntarily as it is need
based and completed. The next step i.e., biometric authentication which is
essential to approve the crop loss and release of compensation to respective
accounts is not known to many farmers. Farmers who are in RBK groups and better
informed ones only could complete the same. RBKs/ Village Secretariat /
Volunteers fail to perform and monitoring system did not bother about the
performance indicators. With volunteer for 50 households present in field is it
so difficult to complete the task? Administrators
have to learn from these grave mistakes and improve upon to ensure HCM vision
becomes reality in true sense.
As
understood from interactions with Royyuru. Valluru Chagantipadu and Devarpalli
that about 880-85% farmers did not get compensation for no mistake of them. As
explained by Sri Tamma Subba Reddy (9441394843) local farmers, 23 farmers from
south valluru under his leadership approached their RBK for biometric
authentication (3-4 times) and it was not done by RBK staff and they were told
that due to corona the thumb impressions are not taken from farmers and its
completed by office on farmers behalf and nothing to worry. These 21farmers went another RBK in
Vallabapuram village in Guntur dist. to validate about eKYC. They were informed
that it was already done for 19 and two were pending. They could complete eKYC
for them. It seems they approached RBK, AO, AD, JD, Tahsildhar offices many
times and never got proper response.
After
thoroughly understanding the issue and its importance to farmers, tried to
contact Spl CS (Agri), Agri Commissioner (AC) over phone and I was not
lucky. After sharing few screen shots
and my comments on the issue, AC responded stating that out of 21 farmers data
shared, 17 had not done EKYC hence rejected, 2 farmers aadhar mismatch hence
rejected, balance 2 got compensation. After me highlighting about the
mishandling of the issue by the field systems, AC replied back stating that its
2020 khariff issue and it cannot be revoked.
If
AC remarks are accepted on face value it will be of great loss to farmers who
are already suffering for want of better prices. With turmeric selling around
6000/qtl, Yam 1400/qtl, Chekkarakeli banana bunch -100/ bunch its huge loss to
farmers and if they don’t crop loss compensation also it will be big blow to
them. Recently progressive farmer of this area went bankrupt and its big shock
to farming community.
With
understanding of ground realities, I am determined to take up the issue to logical
conclusion and ensured visit of senior officers to the mandal to understand the
realities. Farmers gathered and even pinpointed the staff that misguided them
about EKYC and demanded for justice.
As
advised by VC, Agri Mission, the issue is escalated to Agri minister with CC to
the concerned. I am confident that this issue will be resolved in the best
interest of farmers and our Hon’ble chief minister’s vision of efficient local
governance will be realized.
B
Guruva Reddy -9866889246
Bonthu
Broadcasting Company (BBC)
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