Nizamabad Paddy farmers facing immense hardships

Nizamabad: Paddy farmers Potha Reddy and Narayana set their crops ablaze at Langdhapur village in the district on Thursday. A farmer tried to commit suicide while others of Lagdhapur, Pentanlan and Pegadapalli in Bodhan mandal turned their paddy crop lands into grazing lands as the crops got dried up due to lack of irrigation water.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Thursday, some of the farmers said that, the Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy advised the farmers to cultivate paddy as there was plenty of water available in Singur project.

The farmers who have been suffering on account of drought for the past three years cultivated paddy in 90 per cent of the land under the Singur ayacut. However, water has been released only twice so far, they lamented.

They said that the water didn’t reach Laghapur, Pentanlan and Pagadapalli villages in Bodhan. When the farmers of these villages were involved in participating in agitations, Minister Pocharam assured them that adequate quantities of water would be made available to them during the third phase for sowing crops. However, this promise was not fulfilled and the farmers continue to face immense hardships to the scarcity of water to cultivate their crops.

Farmers hence started organising road blockades at various places on a large-scale. They took dried crop samples and explained the problem to the officials of the Irrigation Department.

Though the farmers met several officials of the department, they remained indifferent to their plight. As a result, the farmers had to resort to various drastic steps.

Some of the farmers said that it was high time for the State government to take up the issue and mitigate their sufferings.

By: N Ramu