BALLARI: Erratic power supply has forced paddy growers in Siruguppa and Ballari taluks to use power generators and private water tankers for paddy transplantation and save their standing paddy crop from withering.
As repeated protests and appeals did not yield results, farmers in the district decided to hire generators to pump water and use private tankers to take up the transplantation work.
Farmers slammed the government for not taking their problems seriously and also blamed GESCOM officials for their failure in providing uninterrupted power to their pumpsets. Standing paddy corp in thousands of acres of lift- and borewell-irrigated land in the district are almost in the withering stage due to lack of water.
A farmer told Express that it was with ‘great difficulty’ that he and other farmers have made alternative arrangements to water their standing paddy crop.
Working president of the district unit of Karnataka Rajyaa Raita Sangha and Hasiru Sene, Purushottamgouda, told Express that as power generation from the Bellary Thermal Power Station (BTPS) was stopped due to technical glitches and annual maintenance, the problems of farmers escalated.
He said that electricity was supplied to Bengaluru from BTPS before the BBMP polls because the government wanted to woo voters there. Paddy growers felt that the government should direct GESCOM officials to provide uninterrupted power so that they can complete paddy transplantation work.
At present, farmers get only three hours of power every day which is not sufficient to water their standing paddy crop and complete the transplantation work.