Farmer gets Rs 50,000 compensation from agri-firm towards loss

The Thane District Consumers Disputes Redressal Forum has awarded a compensation of Rs 50,000 to a farmer from Sahapur here for losses suffered by him due to deficiency in services by an agricultural machine firm, which provided him with a power tiller under a government scheme.
In its recent order, Forum President Umesh V Jhavalikar and member N D Kadam directed that the company Satyen Shah Vijay Engineering and Machinery Company should replace the power tiller given to farmer Yeshwant Laxman Jadhav free of cost and within 8 weeks pay him a sum of Rs 50,000 as compensation towards losses on account of not being able to cultivate his land during the crop season.

Also, if the company delays provision of the tiller to the complainant, then it would pay a fine of Rs 100 per day for delay till the date of delivery, the order said.
Jadhav was one of the beneficiaries of the scheme implemented by the Social Welfare department of Maharashtra government providing power tillers to farmers from backward community. As per the scheme, the department selects the beneficiaries and gives them power tiller free of cost for the farming activities.
One such tiller purchased from the company was given to Jadhav by the Social welfare department of the Thane Zilla Parishad on July 23, 2008. As it was half way through the season, Jadhav could not put it to use.

When he started the use of the machine the next year in July, he could not not operate it even for a week as it was giving trouble in operation.
Finding that the machine was erratic, he made a complaint to the company which ignored it. Jadhav brought this to the notice of Social Welfare department which agreed that the tiller provided was defective and was not manufactured by a reputed company and needs to be replaced.