Agriculture dept suspends 160 AEOs, unions cry foul

Hyderabad: The agriculture department has suspended 160 agriculture extension officers (AEOs) citing various reasons. The AEO associations aver that they are being victimised for refusing to take part in the digital crop survey conducted recently by the Centre.

The AEOs had refused to be part of the survey citing a shortage of staff. The association members held a protest at the commissionerate office on Tuesday seeking revocation of the suspension. They alleged that the action had been taken without giving them scope for any explanation.

In a release they said, “The agriculture director refused to hold any discussions with us. Senior officials in the department are being vindictive against us for refusing to hold the digital survey. The work which needs around 20,000 staff is sought to be done by 2,600 of us. The government suspended AEOs for seeking basic facilities to hold the survey. The director did not even give us scope to give representation against the suspension.”

The officials are citing a delay of two to three days in the issue of death certificates for farmers in issuing Rythu Bima while taking action. “Action has been taken against five AEOs in each district to browbeat us into doing what they want,” said Bandela Suman, treasurer of AEOs union.

The agriculture department, however, said that the survey is being undertaken as part of a nation-wide exercise as per the directions of the Union government. The programme is being undertaken from this kharif season across the country. Carrying out digital crop surveys is the primary responsibility of the AEOs. The survey is being objected to by some of them as they want to finish the work without physically visiting the fields.

Stressing the importance of the survey, the agricultural department said that it is meant to know the details of the crop being cultivated in each acre of land, correctly estimating the inputs needed for growing the crops, establishing crop purchase centres needed and decisions thereof. The survey would further aid in implementation of crop insurance, securing loans as per scale of finance and help in getting Rythu Bima and Rythu Bharosa.

The exercise, the agricultural department, said is not new and is being undertaken from 2019 to record the crop being cultivated by each land owner.