Insurance firm employees held up in office by angry farmers

Protesting farmers confined employees of an insurance company inside their office for a couple of hours at Akola in Maharashtra on Friday evening, alleging delay in payment of crop insurance.

The employees were released only after the branch manager gave a written assurance that insurance amounts will be disbursed by November 21, police said.

Over 200 farmers from the villages of Panaj, Ruikhed, Wadaliand Divathana in Akola district gathered at the company's office on Gorakshan Road at noon, a police official said.

They alleged that they were yet to be paid the insurance amount after extreme weather destroyed their banana crop in 2018, he said.

When the office hours ended at 5 pm, the protesters did not allow over a dozen employees of the insurance firm to leave for more than two hours.

Finally, police intervened, and the farmers let the employees go when the branch manager gave written assurance, the police official said.

"It has been four months since panchanamas (spot inspection reports) were prepared, but more than 300 farmers have not received the insurance amount even after the claim was settled," alleged Vikas Deshmukh, one of the protesting farmers.