Zonal Agricultural Officers Visit for Inspection

Posted in Events, Government on 02. Dec, 2009

Officers from the ZAO had planned to inspect damaged crops and fields on the 1st of December, after coordinating time and date with the Village Talathi (Mr. Kedar Bhandari).

During the inspection farmers are expected to be present so that the officers can be taken to the fields in question. The Talathi put up a notice on the Village Panchayat bulletin board announcing the date and time. The Farmers Club informed the relevant members about the date.

Talathi's announcement on the Village Panchayat bulletin board and a gathering of farmers awaiting the Zonal Agricultural Officers at the appointed date and time for the inspection to commence

Besides the 22 farmers that submitted applications through the Farmers Club, the Mamlatdar bunched another 35 applications that were received individually, for inspection as well. All these applications were forwarded to the ZAO.

With a total of 57 applicants to deal with, a route was planned that made visiting the fields easy.

Collectively, a logical route is decided upon and everyone sets out for the inspection (by car, motorbikes, bicycles on foot....)

Each individual farmer was asked a few key questions (amount and variety of seed planted). Plots close to the roads were visually inspected, those with no accessible road were not. Yet, each applicant’s complaint was dealt with.

Next Steps
The ZAO will now compile a technical report with recommendations that will be sent off to the Mamlatdar. The Mamlatdar will eventually make the decision and the funds will be disbursed through him.

Stay tuned for progress on the matter.

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Applying for Compensation

Posted in Government, Problem Solving on 26. Nov, 2009

Applying for compensation is usually looked upon as a complicated waste of time. Not without reason. Last year, several members from our Club applied for compensation when we had untimely rains that damaged the cashew crop. We never heard back from the various departments concerned.

Sample Letter of Complaint and Form 1 & 14

This year also we have applied for compensation due to untimely/heavy rains, which damaged our crops twice this year. The first time it happened in the last week of September and then recently Cyclone Phyan (on the 14-15 of November) ruined our harvested crops. Several farmers were affected at each instance.

For the September incident, several farmers submitted forms individually and are still to hear form the government departments.

For the November incident, 22 farmers got together and decided to use the Farmers Club as a platform to push the departments to act swiftly.

A standard letter was designed, leaving space for each farmer to provide his/her details (see sample above) and attach respective Forms 1 & 14 and NOCs (as needed). Each farmer filled out two such letters and sent them out collectively, one each, to the Mamlatdar and to the Zonal Agricultural Officer (ZAO). The Club also wrote a covering letter requesting the Mamlatdar and the ZAO to look into this matter urgently, which concerned residents of our village.

We also provided prints of the photos documenting the damage and about 6-8 of us, along with a TERI representative met the Mamlatdar and requested him to urgently send the necessary officers for the inspections.

We will follow the process and report back on how long it took for us to actually get the promised compensation. Stay tuned.

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