T’gana govt suspends 100 agri officers, move stirs row, AEOs cry foul

T’gana govt suspends 100 agri officers, move stirs row, AEOs cry foul

Sribala.Vadlapatla@timesofindia.com 23.10.2024

Hyderabad : The agriculture department Tuesday suspended over 100 agriculture extension officers (AEOs) of grade II, triggering a huge controversy. In the suspension orders, the department mentioned that disciplinary action was initiated against the officers for allegedly failing to record farmer deaths as per Rythu Bima scheme guidelines. However, the suspended AEOs argued that the state govt took the action for their reluctance to do the firstever digital crop survey — launched by the Centre — contending that the survey work would put undue burden on them. 

One of the suspended AEOs said agriculture officers in 18 districts received the suspension orders. “Many others are also likely to get the suspension orders. We were supposed to update the Rythu Bima information within six months, but we managed to do it in a very short period,” he told TOI. He further said: “The digital crop survey is set to start soon and for every 20 guntas of land, we have to take photographs and upload crop information.”

Just 2k AEOs can’t cover entire state

With only 2,000 AEOs across the state, it is impossible for us to cover lakhs of land parcels. We have been telling the govt to consider outsourcing the work. Some states have already done it,” the suspended AEO added. Sources said the AEOs were already feeling the heat and openly expressed their reluctance to conduct the survey, but the govt insisted on proceeding with the survey.

In traditional crop surveys, field officers are not required to visit every land parcel and instead, gather information from farmers and record the de tails. “Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have successfully utilised outsourcing agencies for this task and we are also pressing for this so that it won’t burden us much,” a senior officer said. A group of AEOs tried to meet top officials in the agriculture department, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, agriculture department director B Gopi said the digital crop survey was successfully conducted on a pilot basis in 16 mandals in 2023 and added that some AEOs are resisting the survey now. “A few crops from the rainy season are ready for the harvest and this is the right time to do the survey,” he said.