Hyderabad: The month-long survey of farmers ordered by the government has been moving at a snail's pace due to the heat wave. The government had ordered that the door-to-door verification to identify genuine farmers and tenant farmers be conducted from May 10 in all districts.
The data will be the basis to extend financial incentive of Rs 8,000 per acre per year to each farmer as part of the scheme announced by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in April. Under the scheme, Rs 4,000 per acre every year will be credited to the farmers' accounts, once for the Kharif season and once for the Rabi season.
Though the scheme will come into force from 2018, the government wants the data to be ready by August so that it can allocate funds and plan a smooth rollout of the scheme next year.
The survey is to be undertaken by agriculture extension officers. They were provided with supporting staff and tabled computers to collect data on farmers.Officials and staff are not moving out, fearing that they would come down with heatstroke. With the deadline just 20 days away, officials have been able to cover only 20 per cent of farmers.
In some cases, the officials have asked farmers to come to the offices in mandals and submit details on their own, defeating the very purpose of the door-to-door survey.
With reports of officials not taking the job seriously, agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has been undertaking up surprise inspections in villages.The minister visited Medak, Nizamabad and Ranga Reddy districts and found that the survey had not begun in a majority of the villages.
"Officials have to meet June 10 deadline set by the Chief Minister. Any negligence will be dealt with severely. They should visit villages and take up the door-to-door survey," he said.
Mr Srinivas Reddy acknowledged that asking farmers to come to mandal offices and submit details could lead to irregularities in data compilation and defeat the purpose of survey. To beat the heat, he asked officials to begin the survey by 7 am and complete it by noon.
