Nagpur: Getting the cotton farmers compensation from seed companies for losses due to pink bollworm attack may take the state government a long time. Till date, more than 11 lakh farmers have lodged claims against seed makers with the state's agriculture department. This is a jump of over 2 lakh as against the tally till December-end.
The department officials will now have to quantify the losses, and put up a demand to the seed companies. The director quality control (seeds) in agriculture department will finally fix the amount payable by the manufacturer.
In this three-step process, farmers first fill Form G with details and claim; then a preliminary report is prepared under Form H; and finally losses are evaluated and noted in Form I. If all 11 lakh farmers have submitted claim for 2 hectares, then according to Rs16,000 per hectare fixed by state, the amount payable comes to over Rs3,500 crore.
Sources say out of close to 11.30 lakh farmers claims received, only 10,000 odd have reached the Form I stage. There are over 1.40 lakh complaints at the Form H stage, which means a preliminary report is ready. There is an internal target to finish the final evaluation by mid-January, which will be difficult to meet, say sources.
"The department is under-staffed and there is a lot of routine work. All 25 to 30 inspectors in each taluka are busy with work like crop cutting experiments to determine yield, evaluating losses for insurance claims, besides scrutinizing complaints," said a source requesting anonymity. There are chances that the work may extend beyond the deadline, but attempts are on to finish the job at the earliest, said a source.
Based on the evaluation in Form I, the director quality control (seeds) in the agriculture department will hear seed companies and finally approve the amount. However, the process does not end here. The seed companies can appeal the director's order before the agriculture commissioner. Each appeal may have to be heard separately. After that, seed companies can further appeal in the high court and further.
"The state is fighting a case in the high court with one of the seed companies, on which a penalty of Rs36 lakh was imposed last year. This is enough to indicate how long the process would go when the entire industry is involved," said an official.
The highest number of complaints are from Marathwada region, which accounts for 50% of the claims. Aurangabad and Latur divisions have received 3.42 lakh and 2.20 lakh claims respectively. The two divisions constitute the Marathwada region.
Vidarbha, which has been in the news for cotton growers crisis, accounts for 25% of the complaints along with Nashik division. Amravati division, which covers western Vidarbha, including the cotton rich Yavatmal district, has over 2 lakh claims by farmers. Over 47,000 claims have been received in Nagpur, which covers east Vidarbha, largely a paddy growing region.
"The state government should instead pay the farmers directly and then settle claims with the seed companies. The bureaucracy does not seem to realize the gravity of the situation. I have suggested the government should outsource the work to a good legal firm, but that would not be the solution," said Kishore Tiwari, chairman of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Mission (VNSSM), a state government think tank on the agrarian crisis.
