accept the truth:civil body suggests state government

The former high court justice Chaudhary Pratap Keshari Mishra suggests the state government to accept the truth on the draught situation occurred in the western part of the state as a result of which farmers are committing suicide one after another owing to heavy crop damage. “It is better to face the consequences by accepting the truth than to drag poor farmers to commit suicide” justice Mishra told while talking to the media on Thursday at Sambalpur.

Accepting the request of various civil societies and mass organizations of the state, justice Mishra led the fact-finding team, comprising former central minister Braja Kishore Tripathy and secretary of Kranti Mnach Chiita Ranjan Mohanty that visited draught hit areas of western Orissa and the villages where farmers have committed suicide owing to crop damage. During the two-day visits on Wednesday and Thursday the team also met the farmers of Jamenkira block sitting on a Dhrna over the past 18 days in front of the Tahasil office.

“It is a heinous crime on the part of the government not to take appropriate action to safeguard the interest of the farmers of the region even though farmers have expressed their apprehension much earlier about the situation to the government”, justice Mishra alleged.

According to him district administrations of both Sambalpur and Jharsuguda district are purely responsible for such a situation for not initiating appropriate steps in non-irrigated areas to involve the poor farmers in NREGS programme when these areas receive a very low rainfall this year. “From the records of the deceased Pandab Bhoi of Kamatikra (Sambalpur) who committed suicide on 12^th August it is well established that district administration is not at all serious on the NREGS schemes. The empty pages of his job card shows that he never got a job under the scheme”, Justice Mishra told.

“Forget about the pre-action when the administration has even failed to include the wife of the deceased persons in any of the welfare schemes of the government months after the suicide of their husbands. When there are hundreds of welfare schemes with the government, the deceased families have been left with abject poverty”, justice Mishra told.

The members of the team alleged that most of the farmers of the non-irrigated areas have been supplied with kerosene pump-sets on the interest of the government officials. ‘But the officials take no step to supply kerosene to the farmers” former central minister Braja Kishore Tripathy told.

The team will submit a report to the governor to press the government to take immediate step to declare the area as draught hit by supplying all necessary materials free of cost to the farmers to strengthen them for the next crop. “We will submit a report to the governor to seek his intervention immediately”, the secretary of Kranti Mnach Chiita Ranjan Mohanty